


Ashes of Yesteryears

by LenaReyes



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 54,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27730636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LenaReyes/pseuds/LenaReyes
Summary: After Raccoon City, Carlos and Jill's actions impact the world of bioterrorism through the many years that would follow and impact all those who would play their part within it.
Relationships: Carlos Oliveira/Jill Valentine, Leon S. Kennedy/Ada Wong, Rebecca Chambers/Billy Coen, Sherry Birkin/Jake Muller, Sheva Alomar/Chris Redfield
Comments: 13
Kudos: 14





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Heys, want to start off by saying this is my first EVER fanfic. Completing the remake of RE3 made me in love with Valeveira ship. I can't get enough of these two. I wanted to do a oneshot between them since it will be my first, but I got carried away and went longshot. Hopefully you all enjoy and constructive criticism is welcomed, but not so harsh. Well, enjoy.

“You know, Jill’s not gonna take your decision to leave too lightly.”

This was the voice of the veteran STARS operative in one Barry Burton, his words faintly drowned out by the bustling bar at the hotel they were staying for the night, and sure enough, Barry was talking to the mercenary who no longer wanted anything to do with the corporation that used him and his friends as pawns in the ill-fated Raccoon City incident. His mentor in Mikhail Viktor, the old tank who kept him in line and his best friends that were Murphy Seeker and Tyrell Patrick whom were just the few of many that Carlos Oliveira had lost, all for combat data and Nicholai Ginovaef seeking his bonus, but the only good thing to happen to him in that hellish nightmare of survival was meeting and rescuing the woman that captivated him and one he would never forget.

Of course, that woman was Jill Valentine, tough as nails as Carlos had put it and was just as beautiful in his eyes, however, he had made his decision to part ways.

So it is why Carlos had his head hanging low in knowing Barry would be right, that Jill wasn’t going to be thrilled and expected a possible slap from the woman who go on to become an icon in the fight against bioterrorism and an inspiration to children wanting to be just like her, and would do so alongside the one Carlos envied in Chris Redfield. Barry saw this just from the little time he had known Carlos by the way he would look at Jill, but the city had forever changed Carlos and his ambitions to seek justice on his own. As of now, he had yet to look or even speak to Barry since their arrival at the hotel bar that went on bustling around them, but Barry would break the silence after a heave of a sigh.

“Are you really sure you don’t want to join us, Carlos? We sure could have someone like you watching our backs.”

Carlos would speak, but did so after swallowing a dry lump and keeping his head low. “I’m sure, Barry.”

“But I don’t get it. You more than proven yourself from what you and Jill told me. You were the youngest in the UBCS. 21 years old. You made the rank of Corporal in just two months. You already knew how to handle those things way before any of us did and even knew they existed. You took care of Jill for two nights without any food or water. You even managed to cure her of the virus all with that monster running around. No ordinary soldier would be capable of doing what you did for Jill. Only one that comes to mind is Chris.”

Carlos’ eyes softly close shut at the name. “Yeah… Redfield.”

Barry regretted mentioning Chris and therefore sighed again. “Carlos, listen, Chris and Jill, they’re great friends. I don’t know if there’s something stronger between them or if it’s just professional, but you are more involved than any of us for how Umbrella betrayed you and your friends. Don’t you want to avenge them like how we want to avenge the friends we lost in STARS?”

“I do,” Carlos finally looks at Barry, but it’s with eyebrows furrowed, “Don’t get me wrong, I do want to avenge them. I want to take down Umbrella just like you guys. I’ve handled plenty of missions for them, but this one in Raccoon City, it was different. I didn’t have a clue that I was working for the organization that started outbreak after outbreak wherever we were sent, not knowing we were actually cleaning up their mess. Even if I didn’t know, I’ll have to go into hiding when news gets out about Umbrella. I have all the blood they’re responsible for on my hands. I should’ve known better. Why the fuck would a company who makes medicine would hire war criminals and mercenaries, ya’ know?

“I don’t deserve to fight alongside you guys. Simple as that.”

Barry understood all too well, the guilt of betraying STARS for the safety of his family that Wesker threatened as Barry was a husband and a father of two. He needed to reassure himself if going on would again put his family in danger, so fighting was out of the picture. He would just advise those that did join the fight, the small Anti-Biohazard group that would eventually grow into the hopeful force combating bioterrorism which will come to be known as the global BSAA. Barry will be a founding member, just like his fellow STARS teammate, Jill herself, finally arriving and placing a pint of beer for both Carlos and Barry, whom both blink to the Master of Unlocking dusting her hands before placing them on her hips with a beaming smile.

“Well? Drink up, boys.” Jill happily said, which Barry followed up by raising his mug. “Don’t mind if I do, Jill sandwich!”

Jill sweetly laughs to the nickname he had for her and downing a large drink that left his beard soaked, but upon looking to Carlos sadly hanging his head low again, Jill’s laughter dwindled just as her smile diminished entirely, and Barry again saw this. He would save Carlos from the spotlight. First taking another chug and wiping his wrist across his chin to dry off his beard, then giving a strong tap to Carlos’ back.

“Drink up, buddy! The night is still young!”

Carlos doesn’t drink. He stays silent, worrying Jill all the more, and she would get even more worried for when she sat down, Carlos got up to leave the bar and doesn’t bother to stop to Jill’s cry. “Carlos?!”

He continues through the crowd of the other patrons and ultimately leaves Jill’s view, and shortly thereafter is Jill looking on over to Barry reflecting the same worried look. “What’s wrong with Carlos, Barry?”

Knowing it should’ve been Carlos revealing his decision, Barry took it upon himself to do just that. “He won’t be coming with us, Jill.”

It was a major difference from when she met Carlos as she couldn’t stand his joking and flirting, but after everything he had done for her, Jill’s heart dropped in knowing Carlos would not be going with her, and skip hours later, Jill’s search for Carlos came to an end when she found him in his room. She arrived to the heartbroken sight of watching Carlos zip up a duffel bag and placing it on the windowsill, a window that overlooked the harbor and the ship Barry landed them upon, while on the ocean’s horizon was the sun beginning to set, the water glistening from both the sun and the stars coming out.

Stars, it seemed fitting, and watching the scenery was Carlos whereas Jill was watching him, bringing an arm above the window and pressing his forehead against his wrist as he went on observing the sunset. Little did Jill know that Carlos had in fact sensed her presence.

“My ride ends here, Jill.”

Breathless as it was, Carlos caught the saddened gasp that shot out of Jill, more so the way her voice cracked, but she stayed strong. “So you really are leaving…”

That dry lump returned to his throat, having swallowed it and licking his dry lips before turning to face those saddened blue eyes and speaking up in what would begin the emotional exchange.

“Tonight, I’m outta here. I gotta go on the run when you expose Umbrella, and this plan you have of forming an Anti-Bioterrorism group… this fight against Umbrella… it’s going to get global. Believe me, I know by all the missions they sent us on throughout the world. So 100,000 city civilians compared to 7 billion lives? No thanks… I just can’t go through with that.”

“Not go through with it??” A shocked and saddened Jill takes a step forward.

“I-I don’t understand…How can you say that when it’s you that’s more involved than all of us? You just said it yourself, you know more about Umbrella than anyone else. You can provide information, valuable intel on the key players involved and even locations of their facilities. Like your old UBCS base. We can apprehend your boss that you told me about. Sergei Vladimir. You don’t even have to fight. You can be an advisor, make a difference by stopping bioterrorism, preventing another crisis. And as for you going on the run, you’ll be given a pardon when the authorities hear what I have to say.”

“No, they won’t, and I’m not cut out to make a difference.”

Jill’s brows flared at his flat response. “Then what you did for me in RC. What would you call that, huh?”

Whereas Jill’s brows were flaring, Carlos’ eyebrows were furrowing. “Just doing my job. Saving civilians.”

“Oh, that is such bullshit, Carlos, and you know it!” Jill exploded as she slams the door shut behind her and erupts toward him. “You didn’t save an ordinary civie! You saved a friend! You saved a partner! Or so I thought I can finally call you that!”

“Until I found out you already had one! Not your partner, remember?! Now I know why and who that is!” Carlos shot back, and Jill’s anger swiftly left her as she stood down for she knew what, or rather whom Carlos was referring to: Chris Redfield, so her sadness returned.

It ate at Carlos again, the immense guilt stabbing at his heart as before, but he doesn’t apologize as he just walks past her and opens the door. Jill turns to him and sees his head down, unable to look at Jill after revealing how he truly felt for her. Not only that, but couldn’t look at her without thinking of Raccoon City, the place where he lost everything, his friends and including himself.

“It’s getting late, Jill… gotta few more things to handle before the ship sets sail tonight. Go on.”

Jill shouldn’t have felt crushed by the way their bond started. The doubt, the hesitation to trust a mercenary of Umbrella, but after all that’s happened to both of them, especially his courageous efforts to save her, Jill was indeed crushed and even more when a different side Carlos reared itself, an evident sign of PTSD when he let outs an emotional shout with a smack against the wall.

“Didn’t you fuckin hear me?! Get out!!”

They had forged such a bond in few nights, only to have it burnt away, but Jill wasn’t one to let it down. The sadness in her eyes, full of tears beginning to developed, were mixed with those of anger as she approached Carlos. What happens next is Jill stopping, not taking her exit quite yet, but stopping to deliver a devastating slap across Carlos’ face that he took in keeping his head to the side.

“You fuckin listen and listen to me like you’ve never listened to anybody else before in your life,” Jill paused here, and Carlos finally turns to those fiery blue eyes swelling with tears and a finger pointed in his face, “I won’t judge you for leaving. You have all the right. It’s your decision. I’m not going to tempt you either by saying Murphy, Tyrell and Mikhail would be disappointed to see you walk. What I will say is this: I’m alive because of you, so as long as I keep fighting, what does that say about me when you won’t at the least join us? Now how the fuck am I supposed to feel about that every time I look myself in the mirror when you’re leaving me in a cold-cruel-Carlos-less world?! Oh, but wait, that would just be too cruel on my part wanting you to stay, right?”

Silence followed.

Carlos, once again, hung his head low because he knew Jill was right and had to eat his own words with immense guilt in the process. He was running away, from the losses of his friends, from the monsters, from the horror, from that city he didn’t even want to mention by its name, and most of all, running away from the woman still standing in front of him. Jill stood there, for a few seconds, and all it took was a whimper, a heartbroken whimper from Jill that Carlos decided to look back up, and there it was, tears trailing down her cheeks from the always-strong, always-composed and always-determined elite operative of STARS. She didn’t say another word, erupting out of the room with a regretful Carlos reaching for her wrist.

“Jill, wait!!” He caught her wrist, only for Jill to fling it from his grasp, bolting around and letting out a curse she said back in the city, only this time, it was a scream directly in his face. “FUCK YOU!!”

Carlos took the shout and reaches for Jill yet again, but Jill slams the door shut in his face. He presses his forehead against the door with both hands coming over it, wanting to go chase after her, but knowing Jill wouldn’t have it, it just drove Carlos deeper into his shell of traumatic stress. Night would then arrive, a long night, but just before dawn comes, Carlos was ready to leave for the ship. Before so, the door of Jill’s room quietly creak opens, unlocked in a sign of waiting, an invitation for Carlos to walk in whenever he wanted, and it is Carlos. All clothed in black cargos and a black hoodie, all refreshed with a duffel bag hanging over his shoulder and ready to board the ship that would take him to Mexico and then back to his home of South America, a risk he was willing to take, all to save Jill the problem of having to defend him.

So there he was, peeking, looking at the sleeping Jill, her back turned to the door, sleeping peacefully, soundly, and as much it hurt him, Carlos gave that humble smile and whispers. “You’re going to be famous … make Umbrella pay for what they’ve done… so long, Supercop.”

Carlos would be right, Jill will go on to be a beloved and famous hero against bioterrorism.

After he quietly shuts the door, he would miss Jill’s own whisper as was awake all this time, a saddened whisper as she clutched onto the pillow that held stains of the tears she cried throughout the night, and that whisper was…

“So long… Carlos…”


	2. Discovery

May 5th, 2009  
03:12 P.M.  
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

It was eleven years after the Raccoon City crisis, one year removed from the death of the most bioterrorist, Albert Wesker, and summer was at its peak at the vast tropical region where the blazing sun shined over the locals and tourists going about their business throughout the resort cities while most took to the sandy beaches, but the scorching conditions was just as worse in the bug-infested jungles.

It was here where the story began through the sight of a young mercenary running for his life seeing as he was the last of his faction that was betrayed by a man he considered a father figure. 

Here in the jungle is the sixteen-year-old Jake Muller, his jacket and jeans in tatters while his long, messy red hair was damp with sweat from all the running, thus, the heavy panting and the frightened way he swiped away at the dense bushes from his path to make distance from his pursuers that he could hear shouting and shooting, and though young Jake was talented and special given the blood coursing through his veins, he failed to spot a log that halted his escape since he crashed onto the grassy surface after tripping over it.

No quicker did he fall that young Jake got back up, but he froze with eyes burning fiercely at the several mercenaries of a mercenary faction appearing from the bushes one by one to surround Jake from all sides, and unarmed as he was, young Jake readied the only weapon at his disposal, which were raising those fists of his, but that didn’t scare the mercenaries one bit as they all started to laugh and exchange jokes amongst one another in their native language. Of course, it angered young Jake that his blood boiled, but just like that, his eyes shot wide to seeing one of the mercenaries being pulled back into the bushes by an unknown person. The mercenaries are quick to stop their laughter as they rushed to their comrade’s body to see his throat sliced, and then comes another shock when Jake hears two gunshots. 

Those two shots were enough to dispose of two mercenaries as they pierced through their heads for the fatal wound. This meant only three mercenaries remained, whom now trembled in their boots as they scanned all around with their assault rifles pointed at the bushes and even up at the trees that would rustle. 

This again meant they were more than just one person in the shadows, and as for Jake himself, he, too, was scanning around to locate his unknown saviors. He would get his first look at one of them when another three shots sounded out to dispose of the last three mercenaries, and all that followed next is silence itself as the remaining bodies collapsed lifelessly to the ground. Jake, meanwhile, immediately left his state of shock to pick up one of the rifles as he wasn’t sure if his saviors were truly saviors at all and where just there to steal the bounty on his head, so when he makes the turn around, he gasped to the sight of an intimidating man who wasn’t fazed at the least despite the weapon pointed in his direction. 

Who Jake sees is a man standing out in the open with eyes ablaze, but his appearance as a whole took back the young Jake as it was a tall and robust man wearing the casual uniform of an off-duty US Marine that consisted of green camouflage pants, a green tank top shirt that was damp with sweat, and a green bandanna surrounding his long jet-black hair that was slicked back with a lone bang hanging over the bandanna itself. The one feature that stood out to Jake the most, however, was the long tribal tattoo trailing down the man’s right arm that spelled, ‘Motherlove’ while in his hand is the long-established weapon of the Marines. That would be the M16 rifle he kept at his side and not even bothering to aim it at the teenager, just his glare continuing to burn through young Jake.

“Who the hell are you and what do you want?” were Jake’s first words, and he swiftly gets a response back. “I think you should turn around.”

“Wha?” Jake blinked, and indeed, he had forgotten there was more than one of his saviors, but it would be too little, too late because what happens next will be a story he will tell a certain DSO agent in the distant future about South America.

It was a man seizing his neck from behind and with a knife, or better yet, a machete coming to his throat, and this is added by a brash voice coming to the stunned Jake’s ears. “Drop it or I’ll have to add another scar to that young face of yours, which I don’t wanna do because you got some good looks, just not better than mine.”

Jake just blinked again at the brashness of the one who held his life in his hands, but after swallowing a lump with his neck just inches away from the knife, Jake drops the rifle and puts both hands in the air. 

Right thereafter, he is released, and Jake makes the turn while rubbing at his neck to finally meet his other savior, a bronzed skinned man smiling a brash one spun and sheathed the lengthy machete behind his left shoulder. Regarding his appearance, nothing much change from what he wore in Raccoon City, that being kneepads around black pants and a short-sleeved black shirt that hugged at his biceps. What was different is that there was no longer the UBCS patch on the sleeve and no longer wore a the bulky tactical vest, but a light shoulder-holster around his form that held his old CQBR rifle resting over his back, though the biggest difference lied in the man’s dark hair as it wasn’t the same as it was in Raccoon City, the dark, moppy hair replaced by an undercut style, the sides trimmed and his hair waved off to the right with curly ends.

All in all, there they are for Jake to observe with that lost look. “Just… who are you guys and why haven’t you killed me yet?”

The South American just blinked on over to his North American partner. “Just how bad did you scare the kid, Billy?”

“What you accusing me of? You’re the one with the huge knife, Carlos.”

Yes, after an eleven year absence from the world of bioterrorism, both men who once assisted a certain pair of elite STARS operatives had made their long awaited return. 

They are Carlos Oliveira and Billy Coen while there is Jake blinking at their brash attitudes that will only rub on him and shortly adapt himself, but as of now, there’s Carlos and Billy looking back to the scared youth, and for Carlos, he felt immensely as he saw himself in Jake as Carlos was also the sole survivor of a doomed faction, and it seemed like yesterday that he, too, was running for his life from the government authorities in the jungles of Brazil before being eventually caught. So Carlos was here to do the same for Jake, to provide him a chance, but before doing so, he approaches the young Jake who would eventually grow taller than him with the big growth spurt that would come, so there’s Carlos getting on his right knee to look up into the frightened eyes of Jake’s peering right back down at him.

Because of this, Carlos gives a soft chuckle to the innocence Jake held that came from his mother and not his infamous father, and thus Carlos began. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

“You’re not?”

“No, we’re not.” Billy came in, leading to Jake glancing at him till looking back at Carlos once he continued on, and as he did, there’s Jake blinking away at how Carlos’ was tying his boots. “This is why you tripped in case you haven’t noticed, but we’re here because we heard about what happened to you and your faction in Eastern Europe. We tried to get to you sooner, but we first had to make contact with the Black Market to explain that you weren’t the traitor, but they still got that bounty on that redhead of yours, so you’re one of us till we pay it off ourselves.”

Such news had Jake’s eyes lighting up that his name was cleared amongst the mercenary circles, for now, anyway, but before he could even get out a word to thank them, Carlos finishes tying up the laces of Jake’s boots and shows a fleeting smile up to him and does something that young Jake did not expect, and that was Carlos picking him up and carrying the young startled Jake slung over his shoulder. 

“H-Hey?! What the hell, asshole!”

“Whoa! Watch the language, and it’s not asshole. It’s Super-Chief, Superboy.” Carlos spoke the nickname that would stick with Jake between them as he began to walk off where all the while Jake was yelling.

“I ain’t calling you Chief nothing! Now put me the hell down! I don’t need help! I don’t need help from anyone! If I had a gun I would’ve shown them not to mess with me cause I’ve been holding one since I was a kid!”

“So have I, but you were about to die a minute ago, so a gun wouldn’t have mattered, and we really need to do something about that grunge haircut of yours. It’s a mess like the one I used to have.”

“Pfft, I really could’ve handled them myself with just my fists, and my hair is just fine the way it is!” The young Jake confidently yelled out, and for Carlos’ part, he just softly laughs at the confidence that reminded him of himself once again. 

“I have no doubt that you would’ve from the stories we’ve heard about you from Eastern Europe to now here in South America. You made a reputation for yourself, no doubt about it, but we all need help sometimes. You’ll understand that as you grow up cause I did.”

It was wise advice from the brash mercenary such as Carlos, which was a shock in its own right, and when it came to Jake, he goes silent as he bore a saddened face because he didn’t want believe, he didn’t want to put himself in the same position of putting all his trust in someone he can look up to, especially after having lost his mother then being betrayed by one who he looked to as a father figure, but to Jake’s young eyes, the one carrying him was different. So Jake argued no more, letting Carlos carry him to what would be his new home. That laid the first block to a foundation that will be one of an older, little brother bond, just like he would also grow the same bond with Billy, who was silent all this time and letting out a warm scoff as to how his partner would take the young mercenary under his wings, and so Billy breaks that long silence of his.

“Those two are gonna be a handful, that’s for sure.”

Billy, who would be there just as well for the young Jake Muller, said nothing more and went ahead to catch up with Carlos and Jake, but unbeknownst to them both is that neither would ever suspect that their new member of the team would decide the fate of the world, just not yet as the new addition arrived at Carlos’ and Billy’s home.

“Well,” Carlos began. “We’re here.”

“Great, great, can you put me down already so I can see?” Jake growled out under his breath, much to Carlos chuckling and speaking with much sarcasm. “Oh, that’s right. I forgot. Instead of the Prince of Thieves, I’m carrying the Prince of the Mercenaries. Well, here you are, your Majesty.”

Jake got what he wanted when Carlos settled him back down, but just not in the way he wanted as he came crashing down on his rear that he immediately began to rub, and as quickly as he did, the mad Jake has a finger pointed upwards at Carlos smirking down at him. “You did that on purpose, you prick!”

“Meh.” Carlos shrugged, but that childish smirk of his formed into a sincere smile. “You’re gonna be with us for some time before you’re able to go back to traveling the world as you oh-so-much love to do as a stowaway, so take in your new home cause it’s the only one you’re gonna get, Superboy.”

Jake did indeed have a reputation of providing his services all across the globe, and that was because of several reasons. One is that he always enjoyed a change of scenery. Another one is that he didn’t want to stay in one place too long, but the main reason to his worldly travels was that he didn’t wish to get attached for fear of losing a place he could call home, but that glare Jake had on would softened when he does finally turn to look at his new home, and did it ever differ from all the other factions Jake had served in his young career, which were aplenty. At any rate, what Jake sees wasn’t the usual mercenary way of living of having to go from one location to another, as in dilapidated and abandoned buildings.

No, it was a lone and humble cottage secluded in the jungles of the Amazon River. 

Jake gets back up and dusts himself off prior to commenting on their home. “Man… are you sure you guys brought me to the right place? Looks peaceful… I expected something more like a gloomy dump with criminals all over the place.”

Carlos sheds another chuckle as to how young Jake had trouble believing this was to be his new home, but there’s Billy explaining. “We can see why you’re so surprised. Gotta be hidden as much as we can. So it’s just been me and Carlos here since the Biohazard Boom happened with all the bioterrorism going on these days, but we go out clearing and sweeping outbreaks in villages throughout the region, taking down bioterrorists and sabotaging facilities. Loot any equipment, loot medical supplies and money that we keep some for ourselves, but we give most of the majority to the villages ravaged by bioterrorism. As much as we hate to say it, bioterrorism is the only way Carlos and I have been able to make a living, something you should know all about.”

Jake, again, did indeed know about how soldiers of fortune across the globe over have taken the advantage of turning bioterrorism into a profit, but he looks to Billy asks, “I do know about the Biohazard Boom, but what’s up with you two?”

Billy’s right brow went up. “What do you mean?”

Jake rubbed nervously at the back of his neck. “I mean, just how is it that you guys don’t mind fighting those… things?”

Things as in bioweapons is what Jake was referring to, and both Billy and Carlos had to chuckle together as they thought back to what they had in common, which was assisting a certain pair of members of the long disavowed STARS elite squad, whom both had worked under Jake’s father’s command and were now founding members of the renowned BSAA in both Jill Valentine and Rebecca Chambers. It just connected the troupe even more, but since Jake had no clue as to why Carlos and Billy were laughing, they themselves were clueless that Jake was the son of the late infamous bioterrorist, Albert Wesker

Regardless of such. Jake had to ask, and he does so with a suspicious glare. “If you guys are laughing like that, it means you do know what I’m talking about, and it wasn’t pretty, was it?”

The response Jake receives is Carlos ruffling Jake’s long red hair into a mess that afterwards is Jake straightening out his hair while Carlos just moves on. “No, it wasn’t, but hey, make yourself at home because we’re gonna be doing some hunting for a long, long time, so forget about old Uncle Sam and everything you know. We’re gonna see how good you really are, Superboy.”

The Uncle Sam line was from an old friend who Carlos lost in the UBCS, Tyrell Patrick, and Jake would go on to say it later in life, but now, he lets out a low and quiet growl behind closed lips as the cocky Carlos just walked off, but then there’s Billy sighing out. “Don’t worry about him. You’ll get used to Carlos.”

“He’s a dick!” Jake shot back, and Billy sends him a stern gaze. “That ‘dick’ is respected by all mercenary factions who wanted to track you down and kill you, and if it wasn’t for Carlos and his connections, I wouldn’t have a stable life, and neither would you, so count your blessings and be grateful because Carlos is the one who took your bounty on his own head.”

No words from Jake when hearing the revelation that Carlos had done such a thing to risk his own life, all for him. As to why, it was all up in the air for Jake to guess, but he would get his answer in the years to come, but not now as he just goes on ahead.

Hours later, reality would hit young Jake once night had arrived when Carlos and Jake stepped inside Jake’s room with that creak of the door. Jake didn’t see the extravagant luxuries, just an old television and a lone wooden chair, but what was more important were the four walls, a roof, a drawer to store his belongings and a bed to finally sleep on rather than the many rough surfaces he had called a bed during his time in Europe. Either or, the day wasn’t finished as one last task remained, and that was Jake looking himself in the mirror and rubbing at his bald head after having Carlos shave all of Jake’s moppy red hair with a set of clippers that he flicked off.

“There you are,” Carlos said. “You had some good hair. I was only joking about it. Reminded me of mine back in the day. Don’t know why you wanted it all off though.”

“A new beginning.” Jake solemnly said, and it had Carlos blinking.

Carlos sets the clippers down to shed his own solemn voice. “New beginnings mean new lives. Something I went through myself. Just what are you trying to separate yourself from?”

“Complicated… and personal.” Jake said, and he said it with a pair of sad eyes at Carlos’ reflection in the mirror, and Carlos just smiled. “Maybe one day you’ll tell me.”

“Maybe… but only if you’ll tell me yours.” Jake’s smile returned, but before Jake could get another word out, there’s Carlos playfully smacking the back of Jake’s now bald head. “H-Hey! What the fuck!”

Carlos chuckles another soft one as he was on his way to leaving. “You had a long day, but we got another one tomorrow. We’re gonna get you some new threads, your own smartphone, and some firepower, so get some sleep.”

Jake was indeed exhausted not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally after all that has happened in his young life. After the loss of his mother, then the so-called father figure that betrayed him and forcing him to leave Eastern Europe and make for South America, he finally got a break, a good one sent the young Jake’s way that he remembered back to his mother always telling him to be grateful to others when lent a helping hand. Jake was indeed grateful as he now had a new lease on life, but most importantly, he saw the opportunity for this to be his home that he always hoped to have, so just as Carlos was about to take exit, Jake’s reaches out to him.

“Carlos…”

It was the first time Jake had called Carlos by his actual name, and Carlos returns the favor, turning around to see the sadness still over Jake’s face. “Yeah? What is it, Jake?”

“You and Billy… thank you… for all this, but I’m sorry if I made things harder on you guys.”

Leave it to Carlos to be his ever brash, but humble self by being sarcastic to Jake’s gratitude. “Know what? You should be grateful. I had to miss this hot date I met just yesterday and now she won’t return any of my phone calls, but hey, there’s plenty of fish in the sea. Just need to find new bait, and maybe I got it in you.”

“Me?” Jake had chuckled out, making it another first for the young mercenary, but there’s Carlos clarifying himself with arms crossed as he leant against the side of the doorway. “Yeah. The ladies love guys with responsibilities, so I’m gonna tell everybody that you’re my boy.”

Once again, Carlos managed to get the young Jake to laugh wholeheartedly. “No way in hell are you gonna be able to pass me off as your son! We look nothing alike.”

“Maybe not, but you getting a tan would help.”

For the third time, Jake laughs with the shake of his head, and he wasn’t alone as Carlos was laughing there with him while getting ready to close the door. “Now get some sleep. I’ll wake you up at first light tomorrow. See you then.”

“Wait…”

“Yeah?” Carlos blinked at the timid Jake rubbing the back of his bald head. “I’m, uh… I’m starving.”

“No kidding.” Carlos blinked again as he forgot about Jake’s stomach that grumbled through the day, so after a few seconds of Carlos leaving the room, he shortly returns to toss Jake an apple, which he just bobbled and blinks at when securing it. “You serious?! Just this?!”

Carlos just again smiles. “We’ll have a feast tomorrow. That should do for the night. Get some sleep now. Goodnight, Superboy.”

Jake did not argue back as he chuckles to the nickname growing on him, so Jake counters back, happily. “Goodnight, Super-Chief.”

With one more smile, Carlos closes the door of Jake’s room where once left alone, Jake’s own happiness had dwindled down for the reason that he takes out a certain letter from the right pocket of his tattered jeans. It was from his mother which held her last words that he only read once since her death, and why only once is because it mentioned how she still loved his father who was never there to begin with. What it also mentioned is how she mentioned Jake to hold no grudge against his father, and so Jake closes his eyes as he brings the letter to his face to smell the rich, lavender fragrance his mother used to put it on and lasted to this very day. She had sprayed herself upon the letter so that indeed, Jake could remember her as he was doing now, a beautiful woman of flowing red hair with cerulean blue eyes that shined of warmth as she lied on her deathbed, and yes, Jake remembered the loving smile she always held in spite of her deteriorating condition.

As he did remember, Jake made a whisper to himself, and that whisper was…

“Mom… I think I found it… finally a place to belong.”

With that whisper, Jake would end the night, or so he thought because the door creaked open, and when it did, Jake quickly opened his eyes as quickly as he snatched the letter back into his pocket, but there was no need to do so because it wasn’t Carlos nor Billy, but a puppy Doberman Pinscher with big floppy ears that just had Jake blinking as it approached the side of his bed. It stopped to look up at the baffled Jake as its tail wagged happily all while Jake was still at a loss, and much more once the puppy leapt onto the bed to nestle against Jake’s hip, which Jake rose his arm to pet at the puppy’s head and catch the sight of the spiked collar along with the tags in the shape of military dog tags. It was fitting considering Carlos’ and Billy’s military background, but all in all is Jake taking a gentle hold of the tags to read the lettering engraved into the tiny metal plates.

“Manaus, Brazil… Born January 5th, 2008… Sex: Male… Name: Jax…. So your name’s Jax, and you’re only five months old, huh?” The Doberman puppy did a happy bark and lapped up at Jake’s hand, and Jake held a soft laugh to himself, along with another whisper.

“Well, then, Jax… let’s get some shuteye.”

Jax did another happy bark before making himself comfortable, which was scratching, or making biscuits in this case, at the sheets on the end of the bed into a bundle that he eventually laid upon, and it left Jake chuckling to how Jax just slept away, which Jake would do himself after twisting the switch of the bedside lamp, and with that officially ends the long day with Jake resting back and taking that crunching bite of the apple.

The night ended for Jake, but for Carlos, he was turning off the light to each part of the cottage while on his way to his room, but stops to Billy standing against the door with arms crossed. “I take it you heard the news about now.”

Carlos did hear about it, but didn’t want to talk about it. He would confirm it though. “Yeah… I heard… Jill’s alive. And?”

“And any plans on still trying to reach out to your Supercop?”

“I can say the same about you and your Dollface.”

Though they were best friends as much as they were brother figures, Billy took Carlos’ retort as a jab, much so that Billy’s brows tightened and mentioned how much they had in common. “I know we were both sentenced to be executed by our countries. I know we had to go on the run. I know we can’t show our faces. I know we both helped Rebecca and Jill out like they did for us. They didn’t want to trust us, but they did. They could’ve easily told the truth instead of declaring us dead, but there’s no reason to deliver a low blow at me like that because you’re missing something.”

Carlos’ eyebrows also tightened. “Which is?”

Billy moves off the door to stand before Carlos. “You’re missing the fact that we at least owe them the decency of letting them know that we’re alive and doing well. It’s not fair to them, so man up because you may not have another chance. Consider yourself lucky that Jill was alive all long. Now you sleep on that.”

Was Billy ever right that Carlos hung his head low, not saying a word as Billy walks past him, and as former Marine did, he places a hand of a tap on Carlos’ shoulder to let him know that there was no hard feelings, which would show more as it’s Carlos now calling out. “Hey.”

Billy turns to be greeted by a somber smile from Carlos, with a fist out. “Still trying to find the right time to let her know I’m doing ok, so I’m sorry… still brothers?”

Billy scoffed a chuckle. “Is that even a question? Always brothers, Carlos… always.”

Next were both men doing their routine ever since they became the friends they were now, the fist-bump between the two men who can relate to all that’s happened to them and provided Jake a home, and back in the states, a young woman was about to receive hers after many years of being in the government’s protection program.

Enter Sherry Birkin…


	3. Promise

December 25th, 2009  
03:12 P.M.  
Washington D.C, United States.

Snow… this is the weather one Sherry Birkin will forever remember since it coincides on the day she was finally able to be free from the government’s protection. 

The reason for the protection was the prospect of Albert Wesker possibly getting ahold of the young woman, but with Jake’s father now deceased thanks to the efforts of Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar, Sherry obtained her freedom back. The connection between Jake and Sherry began there and would only increase in the years to come, but for now, there’s Sherry, in her fur coat, sitting freely on the top steps outside a federal building and waiting in the cold with her luggage on both her sides, and even though she was free, it wasn’t the same. It never was since what happened to her in Raccoon City where it all changed, where she lost her parents, and where it was the last Christmas she cherished in the loving care of her father and mother.

Sherry’s sad posture said it all, her head down, hugging her knees up to her chest, thinking of that Christmas where her parents showered with presents like any loving father and mother. Every time she would think of them, every time she would think of Christmas, the only gift she wanted as a little girl since their deaths was that a certain DSO agent and Terra Save member would adopt her, but it never came, but she understood that it was asking too much of them, and they were Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Sherry also understood all too well when she was informed by both Leon and Claire that they would not be able to be the ones to pick her up, and it saddened her, obviously, but this change of course in her life would ultimately bring her in the fight against bioterrorism for the ones to pick her up, courtesy of Claire, were her best friends.

“Sherry Birkin?” A light gasp, the warm breath visible in the cold air shooting out of Sherry, looks up at the pair of ex-STARS operatives, now BSAA founding members that she would grow a strong relationship with. 

That would be the medical expert, Rebecca Chambers, in a short, puffer green jacket and smiling warmly while at her side was the famous heroine, who every woman strived to be when it came to being an operative against bioterrorism. 

This would be the one declared dead after three years, the Master of Unlocking herself, Jill Valentine, donning her own fur coat of blue after having overcome months of rehabilitation from Wesker’s augmentations, and was Sherry ever star-struck to finally meet Jill herself in person, a big difference from hearing about her in the news and the stories told to her from Leon and Claire as Jill now stood before her, and would also eventually become an older sister figure as well as Rebecca, just like Carlos and Billy would become older brother figures for Jake. Jill was smiling warmly in front of Sherry, their blue eyes matching the same as their pale blond hair did. It went the same with their ponytails that swayed to the winter wind, as well as the light blue scarf around Jill’s neck.

“Hey there,” Jill happily greeted the stunned young woman that she kneeled in front of and looks up at, “My, my, when Claire told me and Rebecca about you, I didn’t expect for you to be this pretty. So why the long face, hm? Doesn’t suit you.”

Sherry, still in awe, just blinked with her cold cheeks blossoming a pink blush. 

Jill lets out a warmhearted giggle to the star-struck gaze that she oh-so receives a lot. “Don’t give me that look now, Miss Birkin, because Claire told us just how strong, brave and talented you are. Right, Rebecca?”

“Oh, yes.” Rebecca chimed in, sitting next to Sherry, who watches Rebecca pull out a folder from her satchel, a folder containing files of Sherry’s accolades. “Let’s see here… aced all her studies, a valedictorian at both her high school and college. She finished with a 4.0 GPA at the University of Harvard, no less. She led their lacrosse and softball teams to back-to-back championships. Fluent in Spanish, German and, oh, you’re going to like this, Jill?”

“What might that be?” Jill said with her smile still there as she already knew, and Rebecca ends the resume with a cheerful voice and turning the file for Jill to see. “Sherry here knows how to play the piano and French too!”

“Ooh la-la, tu es talentueux!” Jill teased in French, blood that ran through her veins.

Despite the teasing, however, despite the happiness from both Jill and Rebecca and how impressed they were with Sherry, it did nothing to cheer up the young woman, having sadly looked down again an clutching her knees even closer to her, but she does respond, albeit in a sad whisper that Jill and Rebecca would hear despite the ongoing traffic noise and the indistinct chatter of politicians and government officials coming and going from the federal building behind them.

“That file… everything about it may seem good, but all it would take is the mention of my parents and what they did for Umbrella to make it bad.”

Jill and Rebecca exchange the same saddened gaze for they were all too aware of Sherry’s parents, not only from Claire and Leon, but from all the information the government secured after Umbrella was exposed and led to their downfall. That information was then shared with the BSAA where the pair of founding members saw it for themselves in their database, the daughter of William and Annette Birkin, survives Raccoon City because of the efforts of Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy, but is to become a child of the state till Albert Wesker was either captured, alive or dead. Fate, it seemed, chose the latter, but again, now that she was free, Sherry couldn’t fight off the guilt of her parents to this day for having played a part in the deaths of thousands of civilians and that their legacy was a tragic one, various new strains created from the viruses they were responsible for and that still endured throughout the world to this very day.

It now dawned on Jill and Rebecca that Sherry found out herself, the government sharing everything about her parents after being freed.

Yes, Sherry was already aware that the monster chasing after her was her father. 

Yes, Sherry was already aware that her mother was searching for her father.

Yes, Sherry was already aware her parents were scientists, but what Sherry was never aware of was the company they worked for and was never told to her. 

Not by her parents for their daughter’s safety, and not even by Claire or Leon because some things are better left unsaid and neither of them wanted Sherry to suffer that guilt that was tearing at her heart this very moment. They wanted to wait for the right time, but again as Fate would have it, the government itself revealed to her that her parents were manufacturing viruses for the infamous pharmaceutical company all along. Jill and Rebecca felt the world for her, the two falling silent till it is Sherry again breaking that silence with the same sad tone while burying her face against her knees with arms coming over her head, but this time, it wasn’t a whisper, but a string of muffled cries.

“Even if I knew back then, I wouldn’t have said a thing because I loved my parents so much! I would’ve kept shut! What does that say about me?! All I wanted and still want is a family, but it’s fair! I understand! I lost mine when thousands lost theirs because my parents were responsible! So it is what it is, right?! I don’t deserve to be free or alive!”

Sherry’s cries was followed by violent sobbing that she couldn’t keep contained as those shoulders trembled uncontrollably.

Jill and Rebecca, for the third time, exchange that sad look with Jill silently mouthing the words, “I’ll handle this.”

Rebecca had all the confidence and left for Jill’s sedan parked ahead just like Jill parked herself next to the broken Sherry. Rebecca would await in the driver’s seat as long as ever for Jill to comfort Sherry, and it starts with Jill wrapping her blue scarf that Sherry will always cherish and wear, no matter the weather during missions when she would eventually become an agent of the DSO. For now, Sherry blinks down at the scarf before blinking to Jill’s blue eyes shining of happiness while hers were still swelling with tears where they leaked down her cold, flushed cheeks while those of Jill’s were high in smiling.

“Sherry, wanna’ know another thing we have in common other than knowing French and playing the piano?”

Sherry, still blushing asked. “Wha… what is it?” 

Jill brushes a tear away from Sherry, one before crystalizing from the cold. “We’re both survivors, Sherry, in more ways than one.”

“How so?” Sherry trembled out.

Jill remained firm like how she firmly gripped Sherry’s shoulders. “You’ll may not be proud of what I’m about to say, but I know from the archives that you were infected with the G-Virus, but I was also infected… from the T-Virus.”

Another shuttering gasp from Sherry showed in the cold air. The news, the revelation was something she was not proud of. Sherry felt that immense guilt again, that she was to blame, but Jill assures her otherwise, this time with her hands coming from Sherry’s shoulders to now cup Sherry’s cold cheeks. 

“Now listen, Sherry,” Jill softly commenced in what would be a long inspiring speech, “What happened in RC, you’re not to blame as much as you hold your parents to blame. What they did has nothing to do with you, and I know it’s easier said than done to forget the past and move on. The name you carry, Sherry… the Birkin name, it’s been undisclosed from the public. Only the government, the UN, the DSO and the BSAA know about your parents, so from here in on, it’s you, Sherry, to carve your own legacy if you feel the need to atone for your parents. From here on in, the Birkin name starts anew… through you, Sherry. Always remember that, and though they worked for Umbrella, your parents would be proud to see how far you’ve come with everything thrown your way because God knows I am.”

After the heartfelt speech that made Sherry’s heart throbbed with such endearment, Sherry threw herself and cried against Jill’s chest, tears seeping into her coat with Jill hugging her close and whispering. “I may not be your mother, I may not be Claire, but I’m always going to be here for you. No matter what.”

Sherry cried even harder to Jill’s declaration while Jill, herself, just smiled and warmly giggled to how Sherry clutched onto her more tightly. “It’s okay, Sherry. It’s—

“Teach me how to fight, Jill!” Sherry’s cutoff shocked Jill to the point that she had no words, but Sherry had more, looking up into Jill’s widened eyes while hers continued to leak those ongoing tears. “I want to make a difference! Please, train me, Jill!”

Jill would be like Carlos before her, him training Jake, and if Jill were to agree with training Sherry, it would be a twist of fate that would bring them all together, but the hesitation sets in. “Sherry, I can’t. I just can’t suddenly teach you how to fight. Also, I don’t think Leon and Claire would approve. Even the government for that matter.”

“I won’t say a word! And I’ll take full responsibility if anyone finds out!!” Sherry yells again, “Please, Jill! Teach me how to fight!”

Jill was struck, nothing to say, nothing to respond with actions, there was nothing, just looking into those blue eyes pleading into hers when no one, not Leon, Claire or anyone would teach her, so with this last plea, she would. “Please, Jill! Please!! Train me!! Teach me everything!! I won’t let you down!! I promise…”

Sherry sobbed out those words with the last ones cracking sadly as she could barely get them out, and Jill doesn’t hesitate a second later, smiling. “Okay… okay, I will.”

Sherry thought her emotions got the best of her, wondering if she heard right, shuddering out a lone word in the process. “Re…really??”

Jill took Sherry’s shock as an insult, happily, of course, as Jill giggles warmly while tucking the blue scarf back that had gone loose around Sherry. “Yes, really, Sherry… you’ll be living with me anyway. How long, we don’t know yet, so why not make the most of it, yeah?”

This is what Sherry wanted to hear. 

Yes, as much as she wanted it to be either Leon or Claire, it was to be Jill who will take Sherry under her wings, and Sherry will not take this opportunity for granted and will make the most of it in the years to come. As of the present, as in this very moment, Sherry was in utter bliss despite the stunned gaze she kept on giving to Jill, who kept on with her smile. That’s when again Jill is caught by surprise by another launching hug from Sherry, something Jill would get used to and was now laughing away with Sherry laughing as well that mixed with her violent sobbing, but were now of happiness and not sadness. It would take minutes for emotions to settle down with Jill giving Sherry all the time in the world to calm herself, and she does, pulling back slowly.

Sherry’s face was flushed, her eyes reddened, but smiling brightly as she sniffles and rubs at her reddened nostrils. “Thank you, Jill… so much, and I’m sorry for breaking down like I did.”

“No worries,” Jill assured, rubbing Sherry’s shoulders to provide both comfort and warmness, “Now let’s get you to my place before we both freeze up and become popsicles, shall we?”

Sherry laughed and sniffles one more time while clearing her eyes. “Yes, let’s shall.”

Jill gets up with her smile, as does Sherry, but Jill loses hers when she sees Sherry unbinding the scarf from her neck. “Here, um—

“Keep it, Sherry.” Jill assured again. “Consider it a Christmas present.”

Sherry could not hold back her heartfelt giggle. “Thank you, Jill…I’ll keep it and won’t let anything happen to it.”

“Atta-girl.” Jill happily said. “Now, come on. Let’s get something to eat on the way. How does pizza sound?”

“Sounds delicious! It’s my favorite.”

“It’s mine too.”

Jill and Sherry laugh joyfully together, but just as Sherry was about to grab her luggage, it’s Jill grabbing both suitcases. “Ah, ah, now. I got this.”

Sherry, grateful, knows not to argue back, smiling ever so brightly.

They then walk together to the car with Rebecca opening the trunk for Jill for to place both suitcases inside before closing it and returning back to open the backseat for a grateful and timid Sherry. Jill, still smiling, closes the door after Sherry steps inside. Jill then takes the passenger seat, and there’s Rebecca driving them off to the nearest pizza restaurant while on the way Jill was making the phone call for a pre-order pickup, so by the time they get there, it would be ready and good to go, but seeing that they arrived too early, Jill takes it upon herself to head inside after Rebecca pulls up into the lot.

“Ok,” Jill unfastens her seatbelt, “I’ll be back, you two.”

“Take your time.” Rebecca said to her longtime friend, who steps out of the car and makes her way inside.

This left Rebecca alone with Sherry in the silent confines once Rebecca switched off the ignition. Rebecca then waits a good minute for Sherry to break the silence, but nothing. Rebecca just drumming her right fingers across the steering wheel till she stops to adjust the rearview mirror just an inch to catch the sight of a saddened Sherry with her head down. Rebecca decides to let Sherry be, assuming Sherry was still trying to digest it all, her new life of freedom, but then there is Sherry lightly breaking that silence as Rebecca hoped for.

“Rebecca…”

“Yes, Sherry?” Rebecca softly said, looking back to the mirror to see Sherry looking right back at her, but with yet again another air of sadness in those blue eyes. “Was Jill really infected by the T-Virus?”

“So she told you, I take it,” Rebecca said with brows furrowed, and after a nod from Sherry, Rebecca confirms it, along with more while looking at the snow falling onto the windshield. “Jill really doesn’t like to share what happened in Raccoon City other than with her friends. She suffered a lot. None of us were there. Just Brad. I left the city when they didn’t believe us on what happened in the Arklay Mountains. When I knew our investigation was going nowhere, I left, then Barry moved his family to Canada, and Chris also left to start his own investigation in Europe, but Jill… she stayed… she loved RC… she always has this devotion, dedication of saving lives, and she still does. Umbrella, Tricell now… it doesn’t matter… she’ll put a stop to bioterrorism even if it means her life.”

That’s the person, the operative Sherry wanted to be, to strive for to save as many lives she can even at the cost of her life just like Rebecca said, but one more question was on Sherry’s mind, her fingers tightening over her lap as she did ask. “How… just how did Jill survive… who cured her?”

“She never said the person’s name,” Rebecca flatly and sadly began, still looking at the falling snow, “Jill only reported that he was part of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service sent in to evacuate civilians. He was unaware that it was Umbrella responsible for the virus, but he still did everything to save her with this monster bioweapon chasing after her. He went hours, days and nights to find a vaccine. He looked after her and declared him dead. She made out of the city, but then… then—

“Then what?” Sherry cuts in, breathlessly, like the breathless and helpless shot of giggle Rebecca released because she had went through the same outcome with a former Marine, thus, she turned to look over her shoulder at Sherry with a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. “Jill sent in her Raccoon City Report. That’s all.”

Sherry was smart beyond her young years, able to feel, able to sense in Rebecca’s eyes that she, too, went through the same. Rebecca was no fool, knowing Sherry caught her. “Someone dear to you is also missing from your life, too… isn’t there?”

Rebecca settles back in the seat and doing something Sherry couldn’t see, and that was Rebecca lowering her head to the dog tags she was rubbing her thumb over the engraved lettering, but couldn’t block off Sherry’s voice speaking the long and last mission that still lived in Rebecca’s mind to this day. 

“I… I’m sorry,” Began Sherry, “It’s just reading through all those Arklay Reports. You fighting those animals that were experimented on by a Professor James Marcus. The leeches he created. My father, he… he and Wesker stole his research. Your entire squad died, but the Marine, Billy Coen… you were escorting him for execution... you declared him dead, too, but you never mentioned how he died just like Jill. Why’s that?”

Rebecca was put on the spot like all the other times, everyone from the RPD to even the FBI and CIA, Billy’s case was high-profile as they come when accused of killing not only innocent villagers in Africa, but his own comrades, and though it had been over eleven years, Rebecca still believed he was innocent just like she believed they would meet again. So smiling, Rebecca tucks in the dog tags back into the collar of her coat and gives Sherry her answer, another lie just like she lied to all the others to keep Billy safe, looking at the rearview mirror that Sherry saw a soft sadness in Rebecca’s green eyes, and her lips keeping on smiling despite what she was about to say because it always kept eating at her heart as it would now.

“Second Lieutenant William ‘Billy’ Coen is dead... it doesn’t matter how… he’s dead… that’s all.”

Sherry had read through Rebecca, but Rebecca would do the same right after hearing Sherry say, “Rebecca, I’m sor—

“Don’t be,” Rebecca cuts her off, once again looking again over her shoulder and smiling at Sherry, “We’re all sisters now. We’re going to be living together.”

“Wha?” Sherry utters and Rebecca giggles. “She didn’t tell you that we’re both roommates? Well, yes. We’ve been living together ever since she was cleared by the BSAA after what Wesker did to her. I’ve been Jill’s primary to make sure there’s no complications till a good amount of time passes by. Oh, we also live with a furry companion.”

“Furry companion?” Sherry blinked, and Rebecca giggles again. “You’ll see soon enough.”

Sherry will indeed see before the night’s end when after enjoying the pizza with her new roommates in the suburbs of the nation’s capital, the trio chatting it up with Sherry laughing it up to the funny stories Jill and Rebecca shared throughout their long friendship while in the background was a movie playing, which they could care less of as they had fun just through each other’s company. Sherry adored and cherished every moment, feeling like she had two older sisters all along, part of a family even if there was no father or mother figure, but it was a long night and one that would end in resemblance to that of Carlos and Jake.

That was Jill asking. “Are you sure about this, Sherry?”

Both Jill and Sherry stood in the bathroom, looking at their reflections in the mirror as both were out of their fur coats with Jill in her blue BSAA uniform and Sherry in her white shirt with the sleeves tucked at the elbows. Jill held a saddened gaze while Sherry held a reassuring one. “Yes,” Sherry softly said, “… I’m sure.”

“Okay… here we go, Sherry.” Jill says this and does what Sherry wanted, and that was snipping off Sherry’s ponytail with one cut of the scissors, letting her short pale blond hair flow freely that when it did, Sherry smiled brightly and lets out that touching giggle, like a person having the weight of the world removed from their shoulders, and it was contiguous because there’s Jill giggling softly and flowing out Sherry’s hair.

“Know who you remind me of?” asked Jill, and Sherry asked back, “Who?”

“Me, Sherry.”

Sherry was no longer smiling or giggling, but Jill was when Sherry turned to her after that compliment as she remembered the old photo of Jill posing with her fellow STARS members, the blue beret she wore over short brown hair, but it was the innocence in Jill’s eyes and happy smile, wanting just to be a normal cop, but would bring Jill into the world of bioterrorism. Sherry knew she would go through the same of having to endure through the career she just chose in life and one that would forever change her, but Sherry remained committed and have no regrets.

Jill asks the same question Carlos asked Jake, and Sherry’s answer echoes Jake’s. “I don’t understand though… why the change, Sherry?”

“A new start… a new beginning, but also be the same as I was back in Raccoon City to make up for all those lives lost, lives I won’t let be in vain… I will make sure bioterrorism goes down like the ashes of the city. Like you said in your report.”

Speechless was Jill, hearing Sherry declare the same oath as hers. Therefore, Jill takes Sherry by surprise when she softly hugs her, followed by a gentle kiss on her forehead and whisper. “We both will make sure of that… now get some sleep… goodnight, Sherry.”

Sherry couldn’t remember the last time she smiled so much in one day as she smiled again. “Goodnight, Jill.”

The BSAA operative smiles the last one for the night, releasing Sherry and makes her way out.

Moments later, Sherry was in her bedroom that differed from Jake’s humble one, and Sherry had it all. The spacing, a high-def television, a closet and drawers to store her clothing, bookshelves to sort the many books she brought from her college days being the bookwork she was, and the lush blue curtains over the windows where she saw the snow continuing on. This is where another resemblance between her and Jake would occur, sitting on her queen-sized bed and observing the only photo she kept of her parents. It was the one from her locket that her mother gave Sherry for her 11th birthday, and one that Claire kept to give it back to her, having only wanted to spend more time with her mother, the very face she was tracing her thumb over while her other thumb traced over her father’s.

“Mommy, Daddy…, I love you… I’ll be all right now.”

Sherry clutches the photo against her heart, and then the last resemblance of the night happens.

The door suddenly creaks open that she instantly puts the photo away underneath the pillow, and like Jake had blinked to the little Doberman puppy in Jax, there’s Sherry blinking to a German Shepherd puppy of a rare white coat, making its way inside. Just like Sherry blinked on, the puppy was just as stunned at the new roommate, but it started to wag its tail with much happiness that after a happy bark. It leapt onto the bed where the pup spun round and round till nestling against Sherry’s side and finally resting down. This is when Sherry takes a look at the dog tags in the shape of hearts that were attached to a light blue collar, and she reads the engraved words of the furry companion Rebecca had mentioned.

“Marseilles, France… Born February 7th, 2008… Sex: Female… Name: Stella… you have a pretty name, and I always wanted to visit France. Maybe you can be my tour guide one day.”

Stella rolled onto her back, which a giggling Sherry started to rub at the puppy’s belly in which Stella approved with a happy bark. “Okay, let’s get some beauty sleep… goodnight, Stella.”

After another bark from Stella, Sherry flicks off the lamp and snugs into her new friend, ending her long, emotional night that was just as long and emotional as Jake’s, but it wasn’t the end just yet as the resemblances of Carlos and Billy now switched onto the BSAA founding members as Jill was turning off the lights. First the kitchen where she threw the pizza boxes away into the trash. Second would be the hallways, flicking them off one after the other with the last one leading to the living room, and this is where Jill stops short of turning off the light when she sees Rebecca on the sofa, watching the newscast of one Alyssa Ashcroft, the renowned reporter who covers anything and everything having to do with bioterrorism as she, too, survived and witnessed the horrors of it, and Jill joins in watching, standing behind the sofa with arms folded and would find out why Rebecca was just as interested.

“This is Alyssa Ashcroft reporting from Brazil,” Alyssa began in front of the camera with the backdrop being a sandy beach where tourists and locals calmly strolled on a breezy, starry night as her short blonde hair swayed. 

“Another facility with old ties to Umbrella and new ties to Tricell has been demolished by a pair of unnamed mercenaries. With this facility, it will mark the 9th facility that has been sabotaged in South America, all in the span of 7 months with no support from the UN or the BSAA. Some of the locals have been calling them heroes for their actions that doesn’t just stop with preventing bioterrorism, but as more as donating food and medical supplies to impoverished villages throughout the vast region left at their doorsteps.

“Heroes, they are called, but the UN and the BSAA are not as welcoming to accept them as such. 

“A spokesman from the UN and the BSAA declared they will not allow bioterrorism to become an enterprise no matter if the deeds are righteous, but one thing is certain: there has been a few locals whom have managed to get a glimpse of the pair.

“One has been described as a Hispanic male, mostly a Brazilian native himself that government officials recall being one of the Most Wanted in the country for participating in a failed coup to overthrow the government many years ago. 

“The other is a Caucasian male, mostly known for a large tattoo on his right arm and that US surveillance recall being part of the Marines.”

“If anyone has any information they are to call the number at the bottom of your screen or head to the United Nation’s website. Also, they are not to make any contact with them as they are considered armed and dangerous.

“That is all for now. This has been Alyssa Ashcroft, reporting from Brazil. Goodnight.” 

The broadcast abruptly ends, but it was by Rebecca’s hand, pressing the button to turn off the television entirely, tossing the controller away and grasping her head that throbbed, similar to her voice throbbing. “It’s them again, Jill… you know it’s them…”

Jill wants to believe as she always wanted, but still refused, which would just result in the same anger from her longtime friend. “We’re still not sure, and—

“IT IS THEM AND YOU FEEL IT TOO!!”

Jill expected such a shout, but with a new roommate, Jill just does a quiet ‘shh’ to Rebecca before grabbing her friend’s wrist and leading them both into Rebecca’s room when afterwards, Jill closes the door but leaves it slightly open. She turns to see Rebecca do as before, sitting down on the bed and grasping her head with a light sobbing. Either way, Jill is not shy to speak her thoughts.

“Rebecca, look at me.” 

She doesn’t, just Rebecca letting out a quiet shout that strained through the sobbing, “I’m listening?! What is it?!”

Jill sighs a heavy one before joining Rebecca’s side on the bed, looking down as she spoke. “Rebecca… I do feel it’s them. We’ve been reliving this news ever since I got released. I don’t know if it’s coincidence, but we can’t just assume it’s them as much as we want it to be, but that is what I’m trying to say. Even if it is them, you know what that will mean.”

“I know what it will mean!” A teary-eyed Rebecca shouts again, loudly in Jill’s face, who, again, calms her friend. “Rebecca, Sherry is sleeping, so try to keep it low and—

“Low and a secret like we have for the past eleven years, Jill?!”

Jill had no counter to Rebecca as it was the truth that both had shared the same lie in their reports that concealed the identity of both men whom assisted them and could never forget everything they’ve done, for if it wasn’t for Carlos and Billy, they wouldn’t be alive and having the emotional conversation they were having now, exactly like how Carlos and Billy had their little spat months ago that also revolved around Jill and Rebecca. As of the present, Rebecca is still in Jill’s face with Jill seeing herself in Rebecca’s teary eyes since she, too, missed Carlos just as much Rebecca missed Billy, both never thinking in million years that they would be in the same boat, two men who were sentenced to death and help them through their own share of biohazard nightmares and that Carlos and Billy were all the innocent as they proved as much, but again, that was only in their eyes and afraid what the world may think of keeping the men they never forgot a secret, only to expose them.

Jill would go on to say as much, reminding her friend of their pact of silence, but first is Jill grabbing Rebecca’s hands. “I can’t say when, but we will, Rebecca… ”

“Promise, Jill?” Rebecca sobbed, and Jill did too, happily when speaking the nicknames both had mentioned and shared from the men who gave them the names. “Would this Supercop ever lie to her precious Dollface? I think not.”

That did it as Rebecca lit up and hugged Jill, the two sobbing and laughing at the same time against each other’s necks, never realizing that Sherry heard it all, standing by the door with such a sincere smile that finally, ultimately, blissfully ends the night…


	4. Jake's Revelation

Two years pass since young Jake had his new life, and was he ever enjoying it as he now recently reached the age of 18 with the growth spurt having occurred as he was now taller and stronger, but other than his physical traits, his brash and cocky attitude remained because within a grand facility built on the mountains splitting between Argentina and Chile is Jake, who was in his favorite attire with his new blue jacket being a cherished gift on his birthday since it was given to him by Carlos himself that he wore over the black shirt with brown suspenders, but as for Jake entirely, he was in a vast area of the facility that held Gamma Hunters encased in pods that were aplenty, and this was his first critical mission to prove he belonged, and would he ever.

The area was high-tech to say the least since in the middle of the area is a computer terminal with a wide monitor screen, and typing away several commands into the computer was Jake’s partners for the job that was on his birthday, no less. His partners are, of course Carlos and Billy with Carlos typing in several commands trying to bypass the security system to initiate the self-destruction sequence that every bioterror facility had. Billy stood guard by the entrance with his M16 in one hand and a briefcase in the other carrying the money they looted from the workers and scientists paid by their employers of bioterrorists. Jake, meanwhile, displays that brash side of his that Carlos and Billy were only to blame as there’s Jake, casually leaning back against the terminal and spinning the Elephant Killer magnum revolver and whistling in his boredom.

So here the three were, and there is Jake, continuing to spin the magnum and whistling.

Thus, a comical exchange commencing with Carlos stopping the typing to shed a frustrated, twitch of a glare at Jake. “Can you stop that?”

Jake, playing dumb, continues on the spinning of his magnum. “Stop what?”

“You know what.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“And if I don’t stop?”

“I’m gonna have Jax eat you when we get back. How’s that?”

Jake immediately stops the spinning of the gun to gape at Carlos. “Bullshit… Jax wouldn’t even—

“Oh, he would.” It wasn’t Carlos affirming as much, but a grinning Billy approaching them by the terminal, “Jax may be yours now, Jake, but he’ll follow any of Carlos’ commands. So I’ll shut up if I were you.”

“Alright, alright, sheesh.” Jake gave up with a groan at the end as he spun the magnum one more time into its holster on his hip. “I just don’t get it. Why not just bring our own bombs and blow the whole thing up ourselves?”

“Because the authorities will be able to trace it and know someone was behind it.” Said Billy, added by Carlos. “Which is why we gotta make it seem these bioterrorists wanted to blow up any evidence themselves, and it will keep our asses hidden. Get the picture now?”

Jake did so, but still groaned that when he was corrected, Carlos and Billy did their fist-bump that Jake, again, groans, having become accustomed to every time they won over him, but something catches Jake’s eye. It was a red button over the terminal that had his brow going up and had the urge to press. “Yo, Carlos, what about this—

“Don’t!!” It wasn’t just Carlos, but both him and Billy shouting.

The self-detonation was activated, screen reading 5:00 minutes. This is what they wanted, but the Hunter pods beginning to hiss open one by one was not, hence, Carlos shouting over the blaring sirens. “You’re something else, ya’ know that?!”

Jake simply shrugs. “Gotta say that I am, but I did get the job done. Unless you wanted to stay here all day.”

Carlos lowly growled, but couldn’t deny it that Jake did get the job done, but were not in the clear just yet as Billy would shout his own all over the sirens and growling and snarling of the Hunters beginning to awake while the impatient ones were clawing at the glass. “All right, here comes the company! Ready up!”

They did as such, the three coming to the center to put their backs to one another as Carlos aimed his CQBR rifle, Billy aiming his M16, and Jake aiming the powerful Elephant Killer. The trio waited and waited for the Hunters to bursts out and continuing to claw at the glass. As that went on, here’s Jake, making it a competition. “So, since this is my first major rodeo, how ‘bout a bet?”

Carlos and Billy blink to Jake finishing it off. “Whoever gets the most kills gets 80 percent of the cut.”

That would mean the two losers only getting 10 each, but the veterans take up the rookie’s offer. “You’re on, Superboy.” Said a grinning Carlos with Jake grinning back, and then there’s Billy shouting once more. “Get in your heads in the game because here we go, guys! They’re coming!”

Carlos and Billy flicked their rifles to fully automatic while Jake cocks the hammer of his magnum down. He then speaks the words Carlos had said back in Raccoon City that was just another sign of how much Carlos an impact had on Jake. “Aw, yeah, now the fun shit begins!”

Did it ever, the Hunters that just woke launched out of their pods and others that were already awake breaking through the glass to land on the surface, and what followed was the gunfire. Carlos, Billy and Jake, letting loose bullet after bullet into the Hunters pouncing at them. Carlos guns one down, then Billy, followed by Jake, blasting a Hunter in mid-air, only to fall dead at his Jake’s feet. This is how it went, the three trading kill for kill as Carlos, Billy and Jake making quick work of any Hunter launching their way, and the chemistry was also there to be seen. When Billy had to reload, there’s Jake having his back, and when Jake had to reload, there’s Carlos having his back, and when Carlos had to reload, there’s Billy doing the same for Carlos.

The kill count was all equal when every Hunter was disposed of till the final Hunter being shot by both Carlos and Jake, so the silence follows other than the ongoing sirens, and then begins the debate between Carlos and Jake.

“That last one was mine!” Jake yelled, reloading bullets into each slot of the revolver while a chuckling Carlos put a new clip into his rifle that he leaned again his shoulder in a cocky posture. “Not was even going to argue. You won. I’m impressed. Keep it up, Superboy.”

Jake’s humbled side showed itself by not replying with a quip, but a grateful, “Thanks, Super-Chief” that surprised Carlos, who would then warmly smile in knowing Jake was growing just as much as maturing, then there is Billy shouting.

“Sorry to break up the touching moment, but don’t you two think we should be leaving?!”

Carlos and Jake look at Billy pointing at the terminal screen, which read 3 minutes left and counting on the screen. When they got that notice, Carlos and Jake silently mouth the same words, ‘Oh, shit’ before making a run for it with Billy already way ahead, but the trio was unaware of a certain pod that suddenly falls before them that was larger, much larger than all the others. Carlos, Billy and Jake stop in their tracks and take a step back right when the pod’s cover is launched into the air, and the reason the trio takes immediate aim of their weapons is what caused it, a large deformed and monstrous claw sticking up from inside the pod where the towering pale monstrosity slowly sat up with its exposed enlarge heart beating and beating. 

Neither Carlos nor Billy were surprised at the bioweapon, just tightening the grip over their rifles, but Jake was. It was his first encounter with a Tyrant type, slightly lowering his magnum in awe of the beast. “What the hell is that thing?”

“Just another fuckface to kill,” Carlos spoke the same nickname he had for a certain Tyrant long ago, and then shouts, “Get back, Jake! We’ll handle this!’

It took Jake a moment to recollect himself, watching Carlos and Billy let loose upon the Tyrant that shot up into the air where Carlos and Billy continued to fire, only for the Tyrant to land behind them where it was closest to Jake, who was slow to react that by the time he raised his magnum, it was knocked out of his hands the moment the Tyrant delivered a devastating backhanded swipe of its clawed arm, so devastating that it propelled Jake off to the side and crashing against a set of terminals that sparked off, electricity bursting from the wires swinging sporadically.

“Jake!!” Both Carlos and Billy shouted with all the concern, seeing Jake barely able to move, struggling to get up just to fall back down.

Another shout follows, and it’s from Carlos and Carlos alone after seeing the timer on the screen. “Billy, we only got two minutes left! Get Jake and get him the hell out of here!”

“And you?!” Billy shouted back.

Carlos responds, yet again, with words he said in the Dead City, “Don’t worry about me, I got this fucker!”

Billy had all the confidence that Carlos did, and he proved so as he always had done, waiting for the right time for Carlos to attract the Tyrant’s attention through all the bullets he fired while luring the beast away, buying enough time for Billy to rush for Jake and assist him up by throwing Jake’s arm around his shoulder.

Jake growls from the pain as he grabs at his ribs with his other hand, but it was the first thing he asks that Billy stops to. “Chief…” Jake pants out, “Where is he, Billy?”

Billy, in their close proximity, saw the concern deep in Jake’s eyes that once he heard the gunfire stop, they both look back to Carlos tossing aside his rifle when running out of ammo and pulling out his G18 that did nothing but anger the Tyrant more to strike away the sidearm from his hands. Next and last option for Carlos was unsheathing his machete, and as he did, he caught the glance of Billy and Jake still there and watching him that concern look still in both their eyes, which Carlos’ shouts to because not only was the Tyrant a problem, it was the race against time with only one minute left remaining on the self-destruct sequence.

“What the hell are you two doing?! Get the hell out of here!”

Billy didn’t want to, neither did Jake, and it was shown by the way Jake kept looking back at Carlos while Billy kept on supporting Jake towards the exit when meanwhile, Carlos was still holding the Tyrant off, dodging any attack and slashing at the right time whenever the opportunity arrived. Carlos was faring well that it left Jake confident, so much so that Carlos was going to be all right, but then it happens, the first time Carlos and Billy would become witness to their young partner being like nothing else for when Jake sees the Tyrant knock the machete out of Carlos’ hand that flipped high into the air, the Tyrant grabs ahold of Carlos’ neck to lift him off his feet while his clawed arm was ready to plunge into Carlos, hence, Jake’s thunderous growl that was anger and most of all concern, and was it ever.

“CARLOS!!”

Jake pushes Billy off of him with such strength that it dropped Billy onto his backside, yelling out the young man’s name. “Jake, don’t!”

Jake does not stop, he ran and did not have to look up to catch Carlos’ machete dropping down as he caught it perfectly in time by the handle.

Carlos, struggling to breathe, would catch the moment Jake threw that machete into the Tyrant’s gut.

It lets out a painful growl, so painful that it released Carlos, coughing violently and grabbing at his neck as the air swarmed back into his lungs, but he and Billy, who watched from afar, see Jake perform actions like none other, delivering a barrage of powerful punches all while at the same time easily avoiding the Tyrant’s attacks with such swiftness, but stopped when the chance opened. It’s Jake dodging the Tyrant’s claw and catching it at the right moment, then ensued more agonizing growling from the bioweapon as Jake was starting to pull and pull the Tyrant’s arm till it finally ripped apart, and for Carlos and Billy watching, the shock didn’t stop there as Jake finished it off by spinning and plunging the clawed arm straight into the heart of its owner, plunging deeper and deeper till it unleashed a dying growl, and with that, it was over.

The Tyrant collapses lifelessly at Jake’s feet with a loud thud, and if it wasn’t for the blaring sirens, there would’ve been sheer silence other than Jake’s heavy breathing while not making a sound were those watching him and the fire in his eyes that immediately left him the moment Jake turns to how Billy, still by the entrance, and Carlos, still on the floor, staring at him as if Jake was something other than human. Jake felt ashamed, ugly even, disgusted at himself that he couldn’t bear it, not from Carlos and Billy. So Jake ran, brushing away Carlos’ hand that reached for him, followed by brushing past Billy to make his way out of the facility, and knowing they had no time themselves for questions, Carlos and Billy also ran with only 30 minutes remaining, recovering their weapons along the way.

They would safely make it out before the explosion occurred that was sure to get the country’s attention, along with the BSAA South American branch, and they were well safe, as well as the scientists and personnel they secured and escorted out prior to triggering the self-destruct sequence. About 10 to 20 employees were on the ground, their wrists and ankles bound as they could do nothing but watch the facility engulfed in flames and the mushroom cloud of smoke rising into the night as they awaited the authorities that would eventually come to arrest them. Watching it also was Carlos and Billy standing behind them, but not Jake, who didn’t stay to look at his first successful mission and had long ago made a direct run for their cottage.

All on Carlos’ mind was Jake, concerned for the young mercenary, and so was Billy, just as concerned as he would read Carlos’ somber air. “Go on ahead.”

Carlos looks to Billy, who wasn’t looking back, but at the flames of the facility and holding out the briefcase of money for Carlos to take. “I’ll stay and leave just before the authorities start to arrive to make sure they get these scum. Now go and check on your Superboy.”

“Yeah… okay.” Carlos replied with that somber air still over him, taking the case and leaving for their cottage, but not till turning back to Billy. “Hey, get your ass back home. ASAP.”

Billy gives the thumbs-up he got from Rebecca, and with a grin, Carlos went with the money in toll that come several minutes later, Carlos burst through the cottage, not a single light on except for the one he flicked on upon entering, only to still see no sign of Jake. Carlos repeated the same throughout the cottage. First Jake’s room, second the kitchen, third Billy’s room, and finally Carlos’ room, and still nothing, not even a sign of Jax, which just worried Carlos all the more because Jake and Jax were like glue. Wherever Jake went with his command, Jax would follow, so after heading back outside, Carlos looks down at the soil, first left, then right, and on the right path were both boot prints and paw prints leading into a dense part of the jungle.

Carlos makes his way through, swiping away the bushes and branches as he got closer to a clearing, and with the last swipe, Carlos came to a clearing, a shore where he would always go to for privacy and try to clear his mind of things that bothered him, and Carlos wasn’t the only one. Billy, too, also used the same shore for the same purpose. It’s just how Jake had found it is what had Carlos silent, but shouldn’t be surprised because the two-year-old Jax, now a full-fledged dog with its ears pinched up, led Jake to the secret shore to escape his thoughts, true to a dog’s sense of sensing its owner’s troubles. That being not just Carlos and Billy, but even Jake as Jax laid next to Jake, who was sitting down and tossing pebbles skipping along the sea that shimmered from the moonlight and stars with the gentle waves crashing along.

It was something Carlos used to do himself as a child, and to Jax’s great sense of hearing, the alerted dog was ready to attack anyone and anything to protect Jake, but it barked and barked happily when he found it was just Carlos that knelt down, laughing as he took all the licks from Jax and petting him. Carlos then ruffles those ears and cups the dog’s face before whispering. “Been taking care of our little brother, ain’t ya?”

Jax lets out the bark that was all the approval Carlos needed, but then asks, “And how’s he doing?”

Jax’s response was a whimper as his ears dipped down. It wasn’t a good sign that Carlos read as much with a smile. “It’ll be okay. Let’s go have a chat, shall we?”

After another bark in agreement, Carlos pats Jax’s head and then makes his way to Jake with Jax following, and no surprise, Jax goes straight to lay at Jake’s left side while Carlos stays standing on the right, watching Jake throwing more and more pebbles into the sea, but suddenly stops before throwing another that he clutched in a hard grasp, but his sad, pitiful scoff was not.

“Think I’m some kind of freak, yeah?” Jake began, and took all the strength for Carlos not to look down at him, but he would listen to Jake’s hurtful voice that was soft as the waves that continued to crash ashore as Jake goes on with his hard childhood memories.

“Heh, wouldn’t blame if ya did, Chief. I’ve been called a freak since I was a kid. Made my mom’s life a living hell with all the problems I got myself into at school. Beating up other kids whoever called me that or even stared at me with that damn look like I’m some fuckin’ caged monster and hearing all the bullshit they would say, and it wasn’t just other kids. It was other parents and teachers too.

“Kids saying, that boy is a freak. He doesn’t talk. Why does he even try to sit with us during lunch? Why does he even try to play with us on the playground?”

“Parents saying, stay away from him. He’s no good like his mother.

“Then the teachers saying, he’s been expelled two times. Telling my mom I can’t teach your son. He’s never going to learn. That Jake Muller won’t amount to anything. He’s a bad child. You’re better off sending your son to an orphanage.”

The last one, it stabbed at Carlos that he bit down on his lower lip, holding back the deep sigh of sadness he wanted to release, just as he also held back from speaking through his throat that became dry where swallowing did nothing, only the clearing of the throat would, but Carlos doesn’t because he knew Jake would know Carlos was feeling the world for him, and so Carlos stayed strong and silent because Jake was not yet finished, but when he would be, Jake ends it with such a tragic confession. Before Jake does so, he stands up, the pebble still in his hand with Carlos finally watching him approach the shore and stopping. Jake could feel the warm waters of the waves sweeping around and past his boots, but what Carlos couldn’t see was that humble smile again, but he could hear it in that broken chuckle.

“Know what hurt me the most though, Chief?”

“What?” That lone word couldn’t sound anymore coarse from Carlos, keeping strong that would be hard to do as Jake finishes the story.

“My mom having to go through all that, but that’s the thing. She was always there, defending me. No matter what, my mom kept smiling and laughing. She could care less of what everyone said. She didn’t give a fuck about it, but I did because it’s my fault that she had a hard time finding a job and having to move us from place to place, but never once did she complain. She just kept on with that smile… even when she got sick. She always telling me these things like she knew she didn’t have long to live …

“Don’t worry… I’ll be okay.

“I don’t need help with the groceries, sweetheart. I’m fine.

“Don’t listen to what other people say about us. I’m happy.

“You’re a special child and the world will love you as much as I do, that you will make a difference, my little Jake… all of the world.

Jake ends with another broken chuckle, even a slight sob that Carlos could hear within it, but it was the confession that would disappoint Carlos. “I always wanted to run away… Shit, there was times when I thought about killing myself to save my mom the fuckin’ problem I was just so I could say: Hey, fuck you world, good riddance. As long as my mom wouldn’t have to deal with me, I would be all for it… I’d be better off dead.”

With that conclusion, Carlos had enough, and did he ever make sure of it because the next thing Jake hears the is ‘click’ sound that could only come from the hammer of his magnum and the feel of the muzzle being pressed against the back of his head. Jake, though, is not shocked, thinking, feeling Carlos was up to one of his jokes, so when Jake does turn, he will be shocked because in Carlos’ eyes are unshed tears while his eyes themselves burned with such disappointment while the muzzle of Jake’s own magnum was now pressed against Jake’s forehead after he made that turn. Jake had no words, simply staring down the barrel, then staring past at it to look at Carlos and listen to his direct question that was clear and simple.

“You want your deathwish? I can grant that right now.”

Jake remained in the middle, wondering if this was some ploy from Carlos, a bluff that Jake scoffed at by brushing away the gun from his face. “Get the hell outta here, Chief, and—!!

A gunshot Carlos fires into the night right just after Jake had brushed away Carlos’ hand in time that had Jake left in more shock, which followed with Jake giving Carlos a shove. “What the fuck was that?!”

Carlos’ response was again having Jake’s life in his hands by again aiming the magnum at Jake’s head. “Now, answer me… do you still wish it would’ve been better for your mother if you killed yourself?”

“YES!” Jake growled back, even pressing his forehead against the magnum with arms spread out. “So, fuckin finish it! Give me that damn wish! That way I’ll just make it hell for her again in the afterlife, so do it!”

“Comin’ right up.” Carlos plainly said.

It was another shock to Jake that Carlos did not hesitate, more so when Carlos pulled the trigger that had Jake gasping and bolting back with a loud, “AH!” but nothing came.

There was no bullet. No blood. It was just Jake’s heavy breathing, still alive and watching in disbelief as Carlos revealed the last four bullets in his left hand that he let fall onto the sand. Jake, still in disbelief and panting, will only listen to what Carlos now had to say, and it was dead in his face, Carlos speaking in a low tone with his eyes burning into Jake’s.

“Now, you listen up cause I’m only gonna say this once,” Jake looks away, but there’s Carlos, grabbing onto Jake’s jacket and now shouting, “Hey, you fuckin’ look at me!”

Jake could’ve easily pushed Carlos off, but didn’t as he would look and listen, still seeing those unshed tears in Carlos’ eyes as he spoke on.

“You say your mother would’ve been better off if you were dead. Maybe, maybe not, nobody knows, but what I do know is that she did everything to keep your ass alive. You can call it pain, you can say she suffered, you can call it whatever the hell you damn please, but you couldn’t be anymore wrong about a mother who just wanted what was best for her son. It was out of love that you’re still alive and standing right here in front of me because if it wasn’t for you, Billy and I would be dead, so get that through your fuckin’ head that you’re not some fuckin’ freak and that the world will love you as much as she did, that you will make a difference… JUST LIKE YOUR MOM SAID!”

Now it was Jake’s eyes holding those tears swelling, but to his credit, he never shied away from Carlos’ eyes, both pairs burning into the others’ while in the background were still those gentle waves crashing ashore till Jake finally pushes off, grabbing Carlos by the collar of his shirt with his left hand while cocking back his right hand into a fist for a punch that Carlos was all the ready for, his arms spread out as Jake had done.

“Go ahead.” Carlos allowed. “Do it.”

A single punch from Jake would be enough to kill a person, but Carlos was not just a person in Jake’s eyes, he was a brother, and so that fist loosened while the other grabbing his shirt pulled Carlos for a hug like no other for there’s Jake, doing something he had not done since the passing of his mother, which was sobbing into Carlos’ chest with such strength and emotion that Carlos caught himself from falling, but he laughed. He laughed so heartedly while Jake’s sobbing turned into cries with Carlos embracing Jake harder, knowing Jake was letting it all out. After Jake settles his cries into sobs, Carlos cups the young man’s face, and Carlos would be the only one other than Jake’s mother to see Jake as he was now, his flushed scarred cheeks with tears leaking down, with more to follow after Carlos would say,

“Of course I ain’t your old man, whoever the hell he was… it aint easy, Jake… you’re young and you’ll find that hot date that you’ll do anything for, but hell if I ain’t proud to see the man you are now… the lost kid I believed in from day one…. Already proud of you, Superboy.”

Jake, with all his strength that could kill a person in a single blow, used it all to hug Carlos again with such love that, again, Carlos laughed through it and hugged back, and watching all along was Billy from the bushes, leaning against a tree with Jax at his side, whom Billy smiles down to.

“Guess you won’t be eating Jake after all.”

Jax didn’t bark, just circling happily around Billy’s legs, and that was it… Billy smiling back at Carlos and Jake hugging with the backdrop of the starry night, which will reflect that of Jill’s and Sherry’s just as Rebecca would be in Billy’s shoes, watching them with a smile…


	5. Sherry's Revelation

A lone year passes by as it was now November of 2012 since Jake’s first mission and just a month away with what will be labeled the C-Virus attacks across the globe…

Before so, it was now Sherry’s turn to prove herself as a trainee of the DSO with the help and the supervision from BSAA Captain Jill Valentine, who was also going through her first operation since being cleared from the augmentations of what Wesker had done to her body, and Jill was all the ready for it, comfortable to be back in her blue uniform as she sat in the cabin of the helicopter soaring through a winter afternoon over the Eastern Europe country of Serbia that like many other countries in the region were experiencing the civil dispute from the Republic of Edonia, its many civilians fleeing the country where a new mutated strain was sweeping throughout. They were named the J’avo, and they were causing havoc throughout region by anti-government forces, hence, the United Nations sending the BSAA in.

“What’s the ETA on the LZ?!” Jill shouted over the whirring propellers, and the pilot shouts back. “15-to-25 minutes, Captain Valentine!”

“Copy that!” Jill said just as she slides a clip into a 909 handgun.

Jill then slides that gun into its holster on her right thigh before leaning back and giving a deep a breath upwards. The nervousness was there despite all the successful operations and everything she had overcome in her career, which just made her human. No matter how much the world thought her to be other than that, Jill fought on as the normal person, that normal cop she always wanted to be and not some hero, and with that word, it always tormented her since it all went back to that night when Carlos left her life. Thus, is Jill looking down, wondering, just wondering what Carlos would think of her and how far she had come with such a reputation, so the fleeting small smile that showed was enough of an answer, but she knew now was not the time to think back on how much she still missed him, but therein lied how much before every operation she undertook, thinking of the one she owed her life to, thinking of that brash Umbrella mercenary that stole her heart.

So like all the other times came a sigh from Jill, now focusing on the present day and slipping her blue cap on prior to looking at the one sitting on the bench across from hers, and that would be Sherry, back in her fur parka with the blue scarf tucked around her neck. Jill couldn’t hold back a smile since she, again, saw herself in how nervous Sherry was, her head down and continuing to switch her Triple Shot handgun from Semi-Auto to a three-round-burst over and over again. It made Jill remember back to how nervous she was on her first STARS operation, but Jill kept on smiling in seeing herself in Sherry, flicking the switch of her gun back and forth just like Jill had done after attaching the Burst Model to her Samurai Edge that seemed like it was just yesterday. 

Jill, thus, would do her best to comfort the young trainee. “You’ll do fine.”

“Hm?” Sherry stopped the switching to blink ahead at Jill and her confident smile. “I said, you’ll do fine, Sherry. Just remember your training.”

“Y-Yeah, I’ll remember everything you taught me, heh,” Sherry felt better, but that nervous giggle at the end brought Jill to shed more advice. “I taught you everything, but there’s only one thing I couldn’t teach you and have to learn on your own and only can on the field.”

Again, Sherry blinked. “Which is?”

“Don’t try to be like me or anyone else. Fight your own way. Survive your own way. Be yourself out there, Sherry, ok?”

Sherry always listened and processed every advice from Jill, but it was this last advice that Sherry would forever carry with her and cherish it. A firm nod and a determined smile from Sherry was all Jill needed to know that Sherry was now fully confident in her abilities. As for their third teammate that still come off as a shock to Jill was Rebecca joining them when she had left the life of combat behind her, but there she was, and it amused Jill to finally see Rebecca donning her own customary combat uniform if she had become an Special Operations Agent like her. It nearly resembled that of the one she wore back in their STARS days if not for the cargo pants and the long sleeved green shirt hugging her form, both now fitted with much better quality material to withstand today’s BOWs, just like how the bulletproof vest was dramatically upgraded and the medical pouch hanging behind her waist was now able to carry even more supplies.

In the end, this was Rebecca joining Sherry’s first mission and sitting next to her as she went through a folder containing the dossier while at Rebecca’s side was her favorite weapon, a Grenade Launcher, and as for Jill, she couldn’t help but to smile as she expected Rebecca to be just as nervous by one of her nervous habits, which was rapidly chewing away at a gum while going through the files.

Sherry saw it too in Rebecca, and there was a bit of comfort in knowing she wasn’t the only one, which would just empower to not let them down, but like old times was Jill easing up the tension by teasing her longtime friend with a sly grin. “So, just how many sticks of gum is that so far, Rebecca?”

Rebecca’s response to her friend’s teasing was blowing a bubble that didn’t last long as it had become dry from all the chewing, so when it popped, Rebecca went back to chewing the dry, flavorless gum anyway. Meanwhile, Jill was about to laugh, but holds it when she looks at Sherry frowning at Rebecca. “Oh, don’t you worry about Rebecca here, Sherry. It’s an old thing of hers.”

“N-No, it’s not that, it’s just…” Sherry, still frowning, turns her blue eyes back onto the one sitting beside her. “I appreciate all the support that I can get, but you didn’t have to come, Rebecca.”

The playful atmosphere turned into a sincere one through those words. Rebecca just looks up from the files to show the confident smile Jill had shown to Sherry. “You’re right. I didn’t have to. I wanted to, Sherry. To make sure you’ll be okay. I’m only doing this one operation before I head back to the institute to teach my next semester. Don’t think you’re putting us through this.”

Sherry loved the response, despite the guilt. “But, Rebecca, I don’t want anything happen to you because of me.”

“Nothing will happen,” Jill cuts in with all her confidence again, “You have the one of the best medics, if not the best on your side, Sherry, because it’s us that won’t let anything, and I mean anything happen to you. We wanted this.”

The pressure was already there on Sherry’s shoulders, and many would expect for that pressure to get heavier, but it didn’t with Jill and Rebecca smiling at her, and those smiles alone was all enough to let Sherry know that not only everything will be all right, but also she had nothing to be guilty for because both BSAA founding members were all for it, willing to risk their lives to prove that Sherry did belong as she wanted. At the same time, Jill and Rebecca were aware that many wouldn’t take a liking to it, but Sherry was a grown woman and capable of doing what she wanted, as in their case, both Jill and Rebecca wanting to support her every step of the way on her first mission, and Sherry couldn’t be grateful as she was now where she couldn’t look them in the eyes as she knew both were smiling.

“Thank you,” Sherry said with her head down, “…so much.”

“Oh, hush with the ‘Thank Yous’ already, Sherry.” Swiftly said Jill, resulting in a sweet giggle from Sherry and also one from Rebecca, who Sherry blinks to when she sees a stick of gum being held out for her to take. “Go ahead. It’s my last one.”

Sherry, baffled, slowly takes and unwraps it then pops the gum of a minty flavor into her mouth, and after a few chews, Rebecca asks, “Feel better?”

Sherry bursts out a giggle this time. “Yes, I do.”

“Good,” Rebecca warmly said, but in a professional as she looked back down to the files on her lap. “Now, Sherry, let’s go over what we’re going to be facing and get you ready for—

“The J’avo,” Sherry interrupted with all respect and professionalism of her own, so ensued the long stretch of her knowledge on the mission. “Named by the R/D department of the BSAA’s European branch, the J’avo become mutated through an injection of a virus that still have to be determined as to how or whom manufactured it. As of far, recent studies have shown they are similar to Leon’s Las Plagas report on the Ganados and Chris’ Uroboros report on the Manjini, and like its predecessors, the J’avo maintain intelligence to the capacity of being able to speak and even wield weapons, from common knives to heavy firearms.

“Its mutations consists of the head, torso and limbs.

“The head and torso is sometimes replaced by red pincers and glowing spots that when the body is further inflicted, it will detonate, but it has been noted the best strategy is to defuse these areas is with close-combat techniques from both in front or behind the subject. Other mutation of the head and torso is the J’avo becoming inflated, a walking bomb that will detonate by any means of damage and cause an explosion of an effective radius of those around. Firing from a distance is highly recommended.

“The mutations of the arms results in the deformation of producing a shield capable of repelling gunfire and other projectiles.

“Lastly, the mutation of its legs, despite heavily armored, are faster in mobility.”

Sherry finishes with a humble, but exhausted ‘whew’ before looking to Rebecca proudly smiling, then to Jill with a proud grin. “I’m sure I can speak for the both of us that Rebecca and I are impressed that you’ve been doing your homework, but we all read the handbook. You’re about to see it firsthand.”

“In the flesh, so to speak.” Rebecca spoke the pun through the irony of the mutated skin Sherry was about to witness herself, and though it was a playful pun, Sherry stopped her chewing and nearly swallowed the gum, but there would be no time to be nervous once they hear the pilot shout.

“We’re here, Captain!”

The moment arrived for Sherry to make her debut as a fighter against bioterrorism, so after a deep breath, Sherry gets up along with Jill and Rebecca, the latter attaching their rappelling ropes the ceiling bar while former in Jill heads to the cabin door where Jill grabs the handle, but doesn’t slide it open just yet, rather firmly looking back at Sherry with determination. “Be prepared for anything, okay?!”

Jill not only shouted over the propellers, but the deafening noise of gunfire taking place outside that Sherry could already hear, and after determined nod, Jill slides open that door, and did the light of the winter afternoon ever shined over them while their pale blond hair fluttered to the blustering wind. The chaotic sight was enough to make Sherry softly gasp with startled eyes as she remembered back to Raccoon City where instead of the RPD against the undead, they were of hundreds of BSAA operatives in an urban firefight against hundreds of J’avo on the streets and in the dilapidated building where dust would rise from those that crumbled while smoke came from the buildings that were engulfed in flames.

In the sky were other helicopters getting into position to deploy more operatives onto rooftops and to the streets where on the ground were numerous platoons of operatives assisting the convoys of BSAA Humvees accompanied by the many APCs, all of them doing their best to stave off the J’avo for the fleeing civilians rushing past them. Men, women, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers running with their frightened children, all running for their lives, and for Sherry, as much as it was hurting her, knew she had to shake it off, which she would.

“Ropes are all set!” Like Rebecca’s shout, the three ropes were ready to take them down onto a clear rooftop, ropes that Jill tossed over and hung from the helicopter.

“I’ll go first!” Jill grabs onto the middle rope and sheds her determined smile at the still-nervous DSO trainee. “No fear, Sherry! See you down below!”

Sherry feeds off Jill’s determination, the nervousness gone. “Yeah! See you down below, Jill!”

It’s what Jill wanted to hear, but it’s how Sherry said it with determination of her own that Jill wanted the most, and after the usual thumbs-up from Rebecca that Jill sends back, off Jill went, spiraling down and landing perfectly on the rooftop. Next up was Rebecca, gripping onto the left rope with her left hand while her right reached out for Sherry, still chewing away at the gum and just blinks down at Rebecca’s hand and smacks for a low five. Rebecca’s response is simply a chuckle, which just made Sherry more lost as to how Rebecca kept her hand out.

“You’ll bite your tongue off almost like I did on my first STARS jump. So, drop the gum, Sherry.”

The young agent stopped the chewing with a, “Oh”, and chewed once more time prior to letting it fall onto Rebecca’s fingerless-gloved-palm. Rebecca throws it out and gives her thumbs-up to Sherry. “Don’t keep us waiting!”

Sherry smiles as she sends the thumbs-up back and sees Rebecca spiraling down and also landing perfectly by Jill’s side that when she does land, both longtime friends were smiling up, and Sherry’s smiles back down. Then with a firm grasp, she takes ahold of that rope and rappels down, and as much as she loved it, as much as she felt anew, the welcoming to bio-warfare would not come easy for halfway through the leap, there’s Jill spotting a group of J’avo on a rooftop opposite of theirs with one armed and ready with a rocket launcher, so Jill shouts out.

“Sherry, drop down! NOW!”

Sherry’s eyes widened at the incoming rocket that made impact with the helicopter’s rotor. 

The result was Sherry hanging on for dear life as the helicopter started to spin round and round with the alarms blaring off more and more faster as the turbulence grew the closer the helicopter drifted away and to the ground. Jill and Rebecca could do nothing but dispose of the J’avo and watch Sherry holding on and on where at the last moment, she timed it right, slinging herself into a window of one of the many buildings. Sherry tumbles and tumbles across the floor till her body crashed through a door that put her within a dark corridor. Outside was the helicopter continue spinning till it ultimately crashed onto the surface a many great distance away with smoke erupting into the winter sky, and the BSAA members feared the worst for Sherry, so when they hear the coughing on the other end of their comms’ device around their right ears, they were relieved as Jill responds with two fingers over it.

“Sherry? Sherry, do you read me?! Are you okay?! Respond!”

More coughing comes from Sherry’s end, which she responds through. “Yes,” another cough, “I read you! I’m okay!”

“Rebecca and I are our way! We see the building! If you encounter any hostiles, try your best to stay in the area! If not, leave! We’ll regroup with you!”

“O-Okay, copy!” Sherry’s coughing settles just as the dust around her. “Birkin, out.” 

She fights off the pain and stands up that when she does, Sherry observes her surroundings, the corridor that was in rubbles with room after room on each side. The building was obvious to Sherry that was it an apartment complex with each apartment labeled with a number while those that were opened held those signs of distress of family leaving during the crisis, but at the end of the corridor was one apartment that was left alone, undamaged and unharmed despite the chaos. This is what Sherry honed in on, the door in perfect condition, but the reason behind the sadness in her eyes was the graffiti on the walls, arrows pointing to the door with slurs and slanders and even markings to those who lived in that very apartment.

Those written in Serbian, Sherry couldn’t make out what they meant, but she knew it wasn’t kind by the slurs in English that were not kind in any way.

One read, ‘Bastard child’, which was followed by more as Sherry continued down the corridor.

‘Mother of a freak son!’

‘Get the thing out!’

‘Disgusting trash!’

‘You should’ve aborted that monster!”

Those were the slanders that even got to Sherry, unbeknownst that Fate was taking her further into what would connect her world with Jake’s, their destinies entwined when Sherry stops by the apartment door with the most slander that stood above all the others. It was the insignia that Sherry could relate to, the insignia of Umbrella’s, riddled with more graffiti that may not have been as insulting as the others, but it was straight to the point, which just said,

‘Go away.’

Sherry’s sadness increased just like the mystery did as to why the Umbrella sign was on this very door, but seeing the sign always called for precaution, and that’s what Sherry does, pulling her Triple Shoot in her right hand while her left grabbed onto the doorknob that before turning it, Sherry reminded herself that this was not her mission. She had to regroup with Jill and Rebecca, but something called out to her, something she couldn’t explain that made her open the door other than the Umbrella insignia, and when she did, Sherry couldn’t believe her eyes as to how intact the apartment was, let alone a fragrance, the aroma of rich perfume of lavender, as if it had just been used while the dilapidated conditions gave off the perception that it had longed been abandoned, but nonetheless, the sight was a peaceful, humble one.

Yes, there were cobwebs in each corner of the ceiling.

Yes, the old, wooden floorboards creaked with each step Sherry took inside.

And yes, there was dust all over the walls, the floor and even specks of it floating in the atmosphere.

It was just a one-room apartment with a small bathroom and kitchen off to the side, and furthermore, there was a bed, a worn-out cushion laying over a steel frame that was anything but comfortable to one’s sleep, but it remained neatly made by the person who slept in it long ago, along with the baby who slept in the crib by the bedside. For Sherry, that sight reminded her of the past, remembering how her parents kept her secure, always in their range of view where nothing would harm her, and it blocked Sherry off the world where at this moment, all the sounds, all the gunfire taking place outside was mute to her ears. It wouldn’t be till a minor rumble that staggered Sherry’s footing and set off a sound that gets her attention, a warm twinkling melody coming the bedside drawer.

Sherry makes her way there, and as she does, the music grows louder and louder, but remained muffled within the drawer. Sherry opens it revealing a music box that was slightly open and with an old, velvet-colored journal labeled with the initials ‘JM’. She first takes the music box, the cover embedded with the Umbrella insignia and opens it completely. It shows two porcelain figurines dancing, one a woman holding the hands of a little boy as they spun together to the twinkling melody that drowned out all the noise entirely to Sherry’s ears whilst she finally opens the journal in the other hand. Sherry sits down on the bed and reads every entry with loving doodles of butterflies and birds around each page, and which it would just drown out the gunfire even more just as it would make her heart heavier and heavier as she reads on to a woman’s life that came with both love and hardships, and by the end of it, all of the woman’s life would remind that of Sherry’s parents.

‘Spring… 4th of April, 1991… Belgrade, Serbia…

“My name is Jana Muller, 23 years old, graduated from the University of Belgrade. I have studied English. My major was Biomedical Engineering. My minors were Biochemistry and Biophysics. I have always had this love for the human body as to preserve a life. I suppose being a doctor is just as better, but to me, after losing my parents at a young age, I questioned it. I questioned the manner of life that ‘what-if’? What if we could prevent a life from dying before some virus or some disease would take a loved one away? Many of my professors tell me that you cannot defy the meaning of what it is to live. We live. We die. Simple as that, and I do agree, but many disagree with me. They find me controversial. If that is the case, then that is them, but… maybe… just maybe… that’s enough for tonight.”

Sherry’s sadness remains, feeling as if her mother wrote the journal before turning to the next page.

‘Summer… 16th of July, 1992… Berlin, Germany…

“It was a thrill! I was one of the young few throughout all of Europe to be invited to Umbrella’s Science Convention! I did not finish first. I did not finished second or third, but it was an amazing experience nonetheless and I will never forget to be surrounded by so many loving people and geniuses that I hoped to be, but then I was approached from one of Umbrella’s researchers. From the very moment, I felt… I felt everything in common with him. I felt humanity was on a collision course of dooming itself and that it could be saved. Everything we said, everything we discussed, everything we shared, we both agreed on. It was perfect that I… I gave myself to him after one night… and I enjoyed all of it and that I have no regrets at all… hopefully so.”

Sherry’s sadness grew, and it would do so with the last entry as there was none left.

“Autumn… 18th of October, 1992… Belgrade, Serbia…

“He has not returned any of my phone calls… he has not returned any of my letters after that meeting months ago. Perhaps it is because I’m with child… pregnant. If that is so, it is okay. I will fight through this. If he does not want the baby, I will keep it. Nurture it. Give it all the love in this world. My son, daughter, whatever it will be, my child will change this world as it will also change my life! I am ready! With or without Albert!”

“No…,” that lone word resonated in her mind as breathless gasp shot out of Sherry, “… can’t be the same person.”

Despite the shock, Sherry goes on to read the last entry since the rest of the diary was blank, and she would find that the father was indeed the very same infamous bioterrorist.

“Winter… 24th of December, 1992… Novi Sad, Serbia…

“A baby boy! He has his father’s face and blue eyes, but he has my red hair! I’m so, so happy! Now, what to name him? I have the first name in mind, but the last name… now that I recall, he never told me his last name. It was only Albert. He always said it was for my safety that I should not know it. That Umbrella will come after me and the entire world with it. I still do not know what he meant by those words, but it must be because of the special blood my son has. I remember the many complications I had through the pregnancy. I decided to run one personal diagnostic on my son after a week passed, and his blood… they showed signs of antibodies within it. Special blood or not, welcome to the world that you will forever change… I love you with all my heart, my little Jake Muller… always.”

That was all as Sherry closes the journal and stuffs it into her back pocket of her coat, followed by a thought in her mind. “Antibodies… Wesker’s blood? Can Muller stop the virus and—

“Sherry, get down!!” 

Jill’s sudden cry did not come through Sherry’s comms’, but from behind her, and with a startling gasp, Sherry swiftly turns around to see a J’avo rushing at her with a blade ready to pierce through her body, which it would if not for Jill saving her life that when Sherry did duck down, a lone bullet went through the J’avo’s head. The body dies flat in front of Sherry scrambling backwards just before it fell, and when it did, there’s Jill at the doorway with smoke coming from the muzzle of her 909 with Rebecca standing behind her, but it was the stern gaze Jill was sending that has Sherry disappointed in herself, feeling that she already let Jill down, but Jill being Jill was just relieved that Sherry was okay as the stern gaze was replaced by a relieving one and a smile while approaching Sherry with a hand down and Rebecca doing the same.

“We’ve been trying to get ahold of you for the past twenty minutes, Sherry. “Said a panting Jill. “You scared the hell outta of us, you know that?”

Sherry blinks, but eventually grabs Jill’s and Rebecca’s hands that pulled her up. “Twenty minutes??”

“Yes,” confirms Rebecca, also panting, “We thought we lost communication, but we could hear a music box and you breathing. What were you doing all this time?”

Sherry was aware she lost track of time, but was not aware of just how much, and the reason for it was the diary she lost herself in, a diary she kept hidden behind her waist in fear Jill’s and Rebecca’s reaction to Wesker having a son, and Sherry wasn’t comfortable by lying to her dear friends. “I… I was just staying put, heh.”

Sherry giggled nervously, baffling Jill and Rebecca with Jill both blinking at each other, then back to Sherry with Jill repeating Sherry’s words. “Just staying put?”

“Yup,” Sherry giggled nervously again, “Just staying put, heh.”

Jill scratched at her left brow that was quirked up, “Well, I guess we did tell you to stay in the area.”

Success for Sherry as Jill believed her, but even so, Sherry wasn’t satisfied with the lie, but knew now was not the right time for revelations because there was still civilians to be evacuated and more J’avo to dispose of, hence, the ongoing gunfire from the operatives and the screams from the civilians getting louder havoc was getting closer as Rebecca, who darts for the window, could see the flock of fleeing civilians running throughout the streets while BSAA operatives stayed in their places to buy civilians time to escape, but could also see the operatives getting overwhelmed ever so slowly.

The concerned medic Rebecca looks back at Jill and Sherry. “It’s getting worse. We have to get back out there.”

“Let’s take the fire escape ladder down. Come on.” Jill said with much urgency like it showed in her hastiness to get outside.

Rebecca and Sherry followed suit, but Sherry stops short of leaving the room to rush back inside to close the music box and stash the precious object into the right pocket of her coat whereas she stashes the diary into the left pocket, both precious items that will come into play many years later. At present was Sherry running catching up to Jill and Rebecca, and moments later, the trio were assisting the operatives help turn the tide. Jill didn’t miss a beat after the long therapy from Wesker’s augmentations, her aim still true through the several headshots as well as her close combat skills such as her roundhouse or reverse-roundhouse kicks, and the same went for Rebecca, firing away with explosive, flame and acid rounds while also showing her close combat skills through means of her Flame and Tear gas sprays.

For the DSO recruit, Sherry faring more than well for her first time on the field, dispatching several J’avo with the rapid burst of her Triple Shot and mirroring Jill’s melee techniques that was no surprise since it was Jill who trained the young agent. The chemistry was there as it was for Carlos, Billy and Jake, if not better than their male counterparts that after another several minutes, the area was clear of any J’avo after Sherry disposed of the last two rushing at her, and out came her Stun Rod, bashing one that was followed with a Roundhouse Kick of her own and bashing the other that she finished off with a Backflip Kick that it all went all slow-motion from there on as Sherry lands perfectly on her right knee, breathing heavily as her warm breath showed in the cold air.

A hero was just born, and there were more than plenty of witnesses through the operatives staring in awe of Sherry, saluting her while carrying the wounded to safety, and the civilians, the families passing by Sherry and giving her such sincere and thankful smiles from fathers, mothers and especially the children, little boys and girls eyeing Sherry more than even Jill herself. The adrenaline within Sherry eventually starts to set, leading for time itself to return back to normal for Sherry. She straightens up, but keeps her head down as the most amazed at Sherry was in fact herself, wondering how she did what just she did, but the one who was just as amazed and more proud was her mentor in Jill, who gives a gentle shove to Sherry’s back.

“AH!” Sherry stumbled and nearly fell to the snowy surface, but caught herself and turns to the beaming smiles of both Rebecca and Jill. “Well, well, now, those were quite some moves just now, Sherry. Never taught you that last one though, right, Rebecca?”

“Right, indeed, Jill. Seems we got someone who carry on your torch.”

Sherry’s cheeks lit up, and it wasn’t because of the cold, but the compliments sent her way that left her speechless and so humbled by the two veterans. By her silence, Jill and Rebecca began to feel they were being too overgenerous with the praising and putting weight of pressure on Sherry’s young shoulders, so they, too, go silent till an operative runs up and salute Jill with the convoys of Humvees, APCs and helicopters soaring the sky.

“Captain Valentine, our forces have secured the area and are escorting the wounded back to the safe zone.”

“Good job. Tell each commander of their unit that I want a perimeter set around the safe zone and want nothing getting past. I’ll be there for a debriefing to discuss our next move. Understood?”

“Yes, Captain.”

The operative rushes off, and if it wasn’t the blustering wind of the winter, it would’ve been total silence as both Jill and Rebecca sadly look back to Sherry, her head still low, and with just one look back to one another, Jill and Rebecca decided it was best to let Sherry be, so they did, both walking towards the safe zone. When Sherry hears their footsteps crunching from the snow and receding, Sherry finally looks at them walking away, but from the peripheral of her right eye, she catches a sight that made her gasp. It was on a rooftop, a lone J’avo aiming a sniper rifle with the red line of its sights targeted on Jill’s back, thus, Sherry saving Jill just like Jake had saved Carlos as she wasted no time in sprinting as fast as she could, all while crying out her name.

“JILL!!”

It happens so quickly, Jill and Rebecca turning to Sherry pushing Jill out of the way from the sniper’s bullet, and just as quick was Jill firing from on her back and letting out a lone bullet that struck through the sniper’s head. With it disposed, Jill gets up and the sight she sees is one Jill never wanted to endure. It was Rebecca already at Sherry’s side, who laying on the ground and violently coughing while Rebecca unzips Sherry’s coat and unbuttons the white shirt underneath it to reveal the fatal lung wound. Rebecca immediately starts to dig into her medical kit, but Jill’s eyes, so saddened and trembling like her shuddering lips, focused on the long stretch of blood covering the snow that trailed down from Sherry’s body all the way to Jill’s feet, and it was a long trail just as it was thick that Jill started to utter under her breath.

“No,” Jill began with that lone word that grew louder and louder with each step she took to Sherry. “No, no, no, NO!”

Jill drops down at Sherry’s left side saw the fatal wound, a bullet pierced right through Sherry’s lung. On the right side was Rebecca continuing to do everything she can to stop the bleeding, but to no avail as both become even more worried when Sherry continued to cough up blood that the more violent the coughing got, the blood reached up to Jill’s and Rebecca’s faces. That’s when Rebecca’s started to apply pressure and informed Jill in such a panic and again, words that Jill didn’t want to hear.

“Jill, if we don’t get Sherry back to base quickly she’s going to drown in her own blood.”

Their forces were there, but already long gone for the safe zone, so Jill remained hopeful and doesn’t waste a second, placing two fingers over the comms’ and yelling into it. “This is Captain Valentine! We have an emergency! Agent Birkin is severely wounded! I need a medevac! ASAP!”

“Copy, nearest medevac in en route to your position.”

“ETA??”

“10 minutes, Captain.”

Jill’s stunned look at Rebecca said it all that Rebecca simply mouthed out the words. “Even when it gets here, she won’t make it back to base.”

Jill’s heart started to race and fell into the pit of her stomach. The back of her eyes started to sting and burn, and Rebecca was no different. When Sherry’s breathing stopped, their burning eyes saw those of Sherry’s softly close, all of life leaving her, and that is when both gave up. For Rebecca, this was the sole reason she gave up fighting, having enough of losing lives under her care, especially such as special as Sherry for it felt like losing a little sister. Same goes for Jill as Rebecca watches her longtime friend being damaged the most. Jill went off to the side and slumps onto a set of porch steps with the weight of guilt all over her, rocking back and forth with both hands clasping her head that wondered not only what the DSO or the BSAA would think, but mostly Leon and Claire, and then a miracle occurs when Rebecca opens her tear-filled eyes that shot wide like her mouth did.

“Jill…” Rebecca shuddered out softly. “Come look at this…”

Jill lifts her head that she was still grabbing and fights off the weight to stand up and make her way back to Sherry, and was she ever stunned like Rebecca before, her own tear-filled eyes widening to the miracle of Sherry’s lung regenerating just as her flesh that at the end of it, the regeneration left no scar behind. Though as much shock they were in, both BSAA founding members knew the cause of the miracle as Jill’s whisper of disbelief said right.

“The dormant G-Virus…”

After that one whisper, Sherry eyes shot open, and the sight she revives to wasn’t back in winter atmosphere of Serbia, but in the warm confines of a BSAA hospital room where Sherry shot up over the bed and swiftly clutches at her side that throbbed. Sherry then looks herself over, in a medical gown before looking to the side where her clothes were repaired, washed and neatly folded on a chair. On top of her folded clothes were both the music box and the diary, and Sherry feared that Jill and Rebecca discovered the revelation, but she would turn out to be wrong.

“Don’t worry, no one read a word.” Sherry withheld a gasp as she shot her startled gaze in the direction of Jill’s voice, and there she stood by the window that overlooked the BSAA’s airfield.

Jill was still in uniform and looking out to the starry night with arms folded and with her back to Sherry, who immediately assumes Jill would be disappointed, but Jill always respected one’s privacy, though at the same time, Jill assumed both the music box and diary were keepsakes of Sherry’s. Regardless of such, Jill turns around, and again, Sherry couldn’t bear to look at Jill’s strict gaze that Sherry looked down at her lap where her fingers were fidgeting nervously, unable to say a word, though never needed to because of Jill’s reassurance that she was never angry with concealing the regeneration abilities, but rather sacrificing herself. Before Jill confronts Sherry, however, was Jill sitting at the side of the bed.

“Look at me, Sherry…”

Once more, Jill asking Sherry to look at her mirrored how Carlos asked the same of Jake, and like Jake, Sherry couldn’t do it, but unlike Carlos, Jill takes the gentle route by cupping Sherry’s chin and turning her head, and no longer did Jill hold that strict air in her eyes, but an air of such worry that the air in Sherry’s own blue began to burn softly with every word in Jill’s soft speech in contrast to Carlos’ hardened speech to Jake.

“Sherry, I’m the same, we both are with our dormant viruses as I told you before, and I get the feeling that you want no one to know because I’m the same. I won’t say a word. There’s things I can do that no one else can, just like you. I saw. Me and Rebecca both did. Your body healed on its own, and I know just by the look you’re giving me is that you’re not proud of it, just like how I’m not proud of myself, but tell you this, call it curses or gifts, I’m going to use them to change this world for the best. It’s all we can do, Sherry, and help others, but please… please don’t ever sacrifice yourself for me because this world will be better off with you rather than me… I can’t fight forever and I really want all this to end, but wanna know another thing?”

“What?” Sherry sniffled out.

Like Carlos cupped Jake’s face, it’s Jill’s cupping Sherry’s face. “I want to grow old, wrinkly and grey enough to see you have a family and be that strict granny to your children, and you know I would be.”

No one in the world could blame a happy embarrassed Sherry bursting out with cries mixed with laughter, even covering her flushed face that just made Jill laugh herself, and then comes a knock over the door. It’s Rebecca opening the door and peeking inside, just as happy to see Sherry doing fine, but she had a surprise to end the night.

“Mind if I come in? I have a special visitor here to see you, Sherry.”

Before Sherry could guess, Rebecca completely opens the door, and what comes rushing in was now the 2-year-old full-fledged Stella, who doesn’t spend anytime reach up over the bedside to lap and lap all over Sherry’s tearstained face as she went on laughing and petting the sides of Stella’s face, giggling and ruffling away at the white fur.

“I’m fine, Stella! I’m fine!”

Such a heartwarming sight has Jill and Rebecca smiling at each other, and so ends the long, emotional night…


	6. Farewell, Brothers.

A lone year passes of accomplishing successful jobs, marking it the year of 2013, and now 21-year-old, Jake was ready to leave for Eastern Europe after the bounty on his head had been lifted, but he wouldn’t leave without saying his goodbyes to the two men whom took him in as one of their own and gave him the chance to have this opportunity to return back to his true home, so right now, Jake arrives at what has been his temporary home, but loved it even more than all of Eastern Europe, that small, humble cottage he will never forget… 

Jake, having just arrived from the marketplace with a gift he kept hidden, only saw Billy sitting on the porch with the now five-year-old full-fledged Jax at his side, both with their heads down while there’s Billy just petting the back of Jax’s left ear to comfort the saddened canine who was letting out those quiet whimpers and whines that Jake could hear and were like stabs to the heart because even Jax sensed it. So the first steps Jake took forward, they couldn’t feel any heavier than usual. The first step in is Billy looking at him with that somber gaze while Jax slowly galloped on over to Jake, who stops with a small smile to how Jax also stopped to lift his right paw and scratch it against Jake’s knee multiple times in the gesture of wanting him to stay, but as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t with a certain, yet, personal situation transpiring in Eastern Europe.

The C-Virus.

Jake gets down on his right knee when the moment he did, Jax was lapping at his face, only to make Jake laugh like all the other times that started when Jake was only fifteen and Jax a pup. “Don’t act like we’re not gonna see each other ever again, Jax. I don’t know when, but I’ll be back, buddy, so you take care of my big bro Billy here while I’m gone.”

Hearing Jake call Billy as such caused the former Marine to dip his head low just as Jax didn’t do his happy bark, only giving another sad whimper, and Jake just smiled warmly since he expected nothing less, but it would hurt him all the same when he straightened up to approach the seated Billy, who said, “You leaving… it’s about what’s going down in Edonia recently, isn’t it?”

Jake wouldn’t dare lie to the man he considered an older sibling, nor did he ever as he confirmed with it a somber voice. “Yeah… it’s my mom’s backyard… I have to go back there to see what’s up.”

Billy let out a scoff of a chuckle. “To see what’s up, huh?”

Jake’s brows furrowed. “Billy, I—

“Save it, runt.” Billy had cut Jake off with his strong, confident smile as he rose from the porch to place a firm hand on Jake’s shoulder as he always had done. “It really feels like just hours ago that we recruited you, and you’ve come long way in the past four years. Me, you and Carlos, we’ve had some fun on the jobs we took. You’ve more than proven yourself, Jake, but still be careful out there. Bioterrorism is getting more and more advanced, but I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll overcome it like all the other times. Saying that… this big bro couldn’t be anymore prouder.”

Jake, for what it’s worth, almost choked up, but as usual, he withheld it, but it just got harder when Billy came in to embrace Jake in a fierce hug that yes, Jake had returned with both arms coming around Billy, in which Jake did a hoarse whisper. “Take care of Jax and chief for me, will ya?”

“I will, Jake.” Billy confirmed in a whisper of his own.

Afterwards was Jake and Billy pulling back with the same strong smile, and just when Jake was about to ask the question on where to find Carlos, Billy beat him to it in already knowing, so said his chuckle of answer. “You’ll find Carlos where we found you, so get going… he’s waiting for you with a very special goodbye gift.”

Jake had to catch his own breath as he batted his eyes twice, but several minutes later, Jake steps into the meadow of the jungle where he was discovered by both Carlos and Billy, though there wasn’t a sight of Carlos to be found, only the gift Billy spoke of. It is a pristine, chopper motorcycle that Jake approached with eyes lit and laughing ecstatically to the vehicle he always wanted as a little boy. He looked it over in awe, walking around the motorcycle while running a hand along the sleek and polished steel of sheer black. As Jake did this, he had no clue Carlos was watching him the whole time, and it wasn’t long that the one who took Jake in makes himself known.

“You likes, Superboy?”

Jake flinched in bolting around to spot Carlos leaning against a tree and smirking at him, which just made Jake chuckle out. “You damn ghost.”

Carlos chuckles out himself as he began his approach of Jake. “Well? Do you like it or not?”

Jake turned back to the motorcycle, then back to Carlos. “She’s a beaut.”

“Ain’t she.”

Jake laughs, which he would asked through the laughter. “Just how much did she cost you?”

Carlos, being the person he is, quipped. “She costs about five grand, but I was able to haggle the dealer to lower the price to 25 centavos, so you’re good because of my good old Carlos discount.”

Jake knew better than to believe that the motorcycle only cost Carlos the said price of twenty-five cents, so said Jake’s laugh that had become common. “Five grand’s a lot, but I’ll be sure to pay it back.”

“No need to,” Carlos flatly and seriously confirmed, leaving Jake to blink at the seriousness Carlos rarely showed, even more in the way he cupped Jake’s face, and yes, Carlos was actually cupping Jake’s cheeks that stunned the young mercenary since the last person to touch him in such a way was his mother, but there’s Carlos even running his thumb along Jake’s scar, and yes again, Jake didn’t budge from the contact, just listening to Carlos’ words that he will never forget just like the cottage, so follows another speech.

“You’ve done more than enough not only for yourself, but for me and Billy. It’s not only about combat, it’s about yourself and how you respond to things in life, and trust me when I say this that I never seen a person handle the troubles you had to suffer. I went through it, losing my mother at a young age with no father there to back me up, so I know what it’s like. To have to keep going from place to place to survive as a boy isn’t easy, just like it’s not easy to move on, but you have, and you proved it, so you leaving… it’s what’s best for you cause’ you’re better than these petty jobs we’ve accomplished. You’re gifted. You’re special. You’re meant for better things, and I know damn well you will change the world for the best like your mother said… Jake Muller.”

It was a premonition to say the least since Jake WILL one day change the world through his blood that will be the vaccine against the C-Virus, but Carlos’ words brought the back of Jake’s eyes to burn and his teeth to clench together behind those pursed lips, and the last time he felt as such was when his mother was dying. The different is, however, is that these were tears of joy, of happiness that Jake was still able to hold back where despite this, Jake came crashing into Carlos to hug him that Carlos quickly returned as he felt the same, both burying their faces into each other’s necks when just then, the full-fledged Jake returned the favor of hauling Carlos up to slung him up over his shoulder, which Carlos yelped as Jake had done when he was just 17.

“Wha-what the hell, Jake?!” The lost Carlos shouted while the now bigger, taller and stronger Jake just went on laughing as he spun them around, and quite a reversal it was when Jake had dropped Carlos onto the ground, in which Carlos pointed a finger up at Jake. “You did that on purpose, you prick!”

“You bet I did and you know you had it comin!” Jake happily exclaimed, and Carlos did not argue as he just sighed. “I did have it comin... but here you go.”

Carlos tossed Jake the keys to the motorcycle which Jake snatched out of thin air with his smile intact and bright as ever, so said the way he got onto the motorcycle to ramp it up, and the roar of the engine had him laughing again like the little boy he once was with his mother. Heck, even Carlos couldn’t help it as he also laughed away, but it died down when he knew that this was it, that it was time for the bird to leave the nest, so said the way Carlos retained the smile on his face even though deep down, he was like a father would seeing their son becoming a man. It was that painful for Carlos while nevertheless, he was overjoyed, proud that Jake was the man he is today after all the bad luck thrown his way, but there was one more gift Jake would receive, and he received it with a glint of shock.

“Huh?” Jake utters out, Carlos putting a pair of shades around his eyes to block the South American sun.

Jake’s reaction is immediately looking to Carlos to encounter the humble smile and speaking over the roaring engine while also pointing down an opening in the patch of the jungle. “Head down that path! It’ll take you to the city! From then on, you’re on your own, but take care of yourself and hurry it up cause’ the ship bound for Europe is about to leave! I also went ahead in paying off the captain and the dock workers to let you board as a stowaway, so you’re completely clean! And if you run into any BSAA jarheads, remember… don’t mention me, Billy or anything about this place!”

Jake was more than happy that Carlos went ahead to tie up all the loose ends himself, but still, Jake had chuckled to Carlos being cautious of the BSAA, which is why Jake had to ask. “I still don’t get it to this day! Why are you and Billy so paranoid of those jarheads?!”

Carlos kept his smile as he repeated another set of familiar words Jake had once said, and they were, “It’s complicated and personal!”

Just like Carlos repeated Jake’s words, Jake himself repeats Carlos’ words. “Maybe one day you’ll tell me!”

“Maybe,” Carlos laughed out. “But get going!”

Before Jake could respond, it’s Billy shouting. “Not just yet!”

Carlos and Jake look at Billy approaching them with a smirk. “We can’t send you without a group picture now!”

“Thanks for refreshing my mind, Billy!” The way Carlos shouted back sarcastically, Jake already knew they arranged to have the photo, and Jake didn’t mind one bit. “So, how do you guys wanna do this?!”

“You doing the honors, Superboy!” Carlos hands his black smartphone on over to Jake that was already set to selfie mode, and there they were when Jake looks at the screen, an emotional shot if there ever was one for Jake.

Carlos stood by Jake’s left. Billy stood by Jake’s right, each having a hand on Jake’s shoulders and smiling proudly. Jake would never forget those faces, and though he was glad to have the shades on from Carlos and Billy seeing how his eyes burned, they still spotted a lone tear trickling down Jake’s scarred cheek, but Jake remained strong, smiling himself as he held the phone with his right hand while Jake showed the rock sign with his left, and it brought Carlos and Billy’s smile chuckle. That’s when Jake snapped the picture, capturing the moment that he hoped wouldn’t be the last between them, and he couldn’t stand the thought of it, so with no words said, Jake hands over the phone back to Carlos.

Carlos and Billy said nothing themselves, expecting Jake would take his departure just as hard, so they kept smiling, but before Jake speeds off, he had one more surprise for them. Jake digs into the right pocket of his jacket and tosses the gift he bought from the marketplace, an apple that Carlos bobbles and secures, which again, just was another reminiscent of how Jake had it caught years ago. Carlos blinks at it and wouldn’t be able to respond once Jake swiftly turned ahead, undid the kickstand of the motorcycle and drove off through the clear path of the jungle 

Right after, Carlos looks back at the apple and turns it, and there’s a long strip of a tag that both he and Billy read, ‘Thanks, bros.’ 

Carlos gives that defeated, but heartfelt laugh while Billy asks. “Why didn’t you try to convince the runt to stay?”

Carlos doesn’t turn to face Billy, but he does reveal his answer while clenching the apple tighter in his hand. “Cause Jake needs to know how the world works. Simple as that.”

Billy agrees, joining Carlos at looking at the dirt trail that kicked up from Jake’s motorcycle. “See what you mean, but things are gonna be a bit lonesome without Jake around. It won’t be the same, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah… definitely not.”

Carlos left it there and turned around to head back to the cottage, but as he did, Billy saw it no matter how hard Carlos tried to conceal it as he brushed past him, and the tears surprised Billy as much to call out yet again. “Carlos? Carlos, are you—

“Just got dirt in my eye, amigo, is all, heh…. think I’m gonna take a walk on our little beach.” Carlos’s chuckle had cracked, and his best friend in Billy didn’t push him to admit the sadness, only watching Carlos walk off before turning back to the path Jake rode off into, and with it is Billy sighing as he let Carlos to his own, but the day was far from over because several hours later with the sun setting, Carlos was standing on that secluded shore of theirs where he stood while carrying a duralumin case in his right hand.

Bringing him out of these memories would be a woman’s presence he would sense like all the other times during the secret meetings they would have throughout the years after Umbrella’s downfall. How they knew each other, look no further to how Carlos had flirted whenever they would encounter each other in Umbrella since after all, she was the certain girlfriend of a certain Umbrella researcher named John Clemens. Carlos had no clue of this at the time, nor did Carlos have a clue that the woman was also taken by a renowned DSO agent in one Leon Scott Kennedy. This, of course, was about to reveal even more background to Carlos’ history, so as such, Carlos sighed out the name of the alluring and cunning spy that worked for an unknown organization that was involved in seizing virus samples throughout the globe.

“You know… when are you and that Super-Agent going to stop those cat and mouse games and settle down already…, Ada.”

Quite so, Carlos peered over his left shoulder to spot Ada Wong herself, donning a red blouse and leather pants that hugged her form while her arms donned long leather gloves, but on her decorated lips is her trademark grin, and for the last two few of Old-Umbrella’s remnants, Ada sheds a mischievous giggle as she made her introduction in the long story, her short jet-black swaying to the gentle breeze. 

“What’s between me and old handsome is between us. What’s between you and me, though, is what’s more important now.”

“The organization you work for have another job for me, I take it, then, Superspy?” Carlos continued the trend of nicknames he was known for, and there he was doing the same for Leon, dubbed Super-Agent, and now with Ada, Superspy, which just showed how far they have gone back, and to one’s amazement, Ada was fond of it, thus, another mischievous giggle saying as much like their playful, flirty exchange that begins.

“It always get to me how it’s you that connects all of us. You and Jill, the BSAA. Then us with Umbrella. It really is a small world after all, and I just can’t help but to wonder how Leon would take it if he knew you flirted with me back then.”

“I would be behind bars, how’s that?”

“Oh, you know I would just break you out.”

“And then what?”

“Take you out for dinner.”

“I offered to take you out plenty of times before!”

“True, but you never said you would ‘cook’ dinner like Leon did for Jill.”

Carlos went stiff. “Wait, what?!”

Oh, how Ada could not hold back her victorious giggle as to how she lured him into her trap, approaching the stumped Carlos and pinching his cheek. “I was only joking, guapo.”

Guapo as in handsome in Spanish, which Ada learned herself just for the pleasure of returning the nicknaming habit to Carlos, and as always, Carlos lets out a defeated sigh, but grinned in the end. “Uh-huh, right. Anyway, here it is, Superspy.”

Carlos extends the duralumin case for Ada to see. He clicks it open, and there it was, the money that removed the bounty off of Jake’s head. It was stacks after stacks of dollar bills. 500,000, half-a-million in Euros in total that was more than enough, which has Ada confused, those fine eyelashes flashing back at Carlos.

“The agreement was only 50,000, Carlos.”

“Consider the left of it a security interest, Ada… Inform the other mercenary factions that if anything happens to Jake, I’m comin’ after them… and tell your employers the same.”

“Even me, I presume, yes?”

Both go silent, the playful games and playful flirting was all gone as their serious faces spoke for themselves. Carlos closes the case and extends it further for Ada to take. She grabs it, but before she could take it, Carlos keeps a firm grip on it just like the firm gaze Ada sees in his eyes. “We worked for Umbrella. We both know all this bioterrorism has to stop one day. I trust you… always have… so always keep an eye on him… for me. Okay, Ada?”

She would do so in what would come to be the C-Virus Attacks, a situation she was already aware of and inevitable, but to reveal this to Carlos was against the organization’s guidelines, though, rare as it was for the spy, Ada does just that, and only for Carlos as he lets her take the case. “Carlos, have you ever took the time to consider why Muller is special as he is?”

That question just has Carlos at a loss. “What do you mean by—

“Walk with me, Carlos, as I explain.” Ada’s soft cutoff came with not her trademark grin, but a smile that Carlos did know what to make of or how Ada crossed an arm with his as she began that romantic stroll through the beach, and Ada would again giggle at his lost look. “Why so tense? Don’t think much of this. Just a casual walk between friends.”

Just when Carlos thought he had the upper-hand on being the flirt amongst them, he suffers defeat again at the hand of Ada’s as he went along with her, scoffing a chuckle. “Leon is sure gonna have hands full with a lady like you when you decide to settle down.”

“I take that as a compliment.” Ada quipped back, both now joining in soft laughter with the sound of the gentle waves crashing ashore.

The serious would turn in spite of Carlos ever being one to do so, and Ada wasn’t flustered by his flat return to the conversation. “So, what did you mean by Jake being special?”

Just as flatly Carlos asked, Ada went back at him. “Can you keep a secret?”

Carlos looks at the side of her face seeing as Ada keeps her gaze ahead. “Even if I wanted to spill the secret, who would I go to anyway? You already know that.”

“Solid point.” Ada says, the left end of her lips forming a grin, “But still, Carlos, can I count on you?”

“We’re the only ones that know what we’ve been doing since Umbrella went down and you could’ve already ratted me out at any time. I wouldn’t even have these jobs without you. You know you can count on me, Ada.” 

That stroll across the shore stopped when Ada stops, turning and sparing a sincere and somber gaze into Carlos’ eyes that was rare of the spy, and thus she drops the bombshell. “Muller, the boy you’ve been looking after is Wesker’s son.”

Carlos’ reaction? It takes a moment. There’s no widening of the eyes or a gasp from the mouth. It’s just silence, his eyes searching into Ada’s that kept firm, but when he starts to chuckle that grew and grew, she took offense, as if Carlos didn’t believe it. “What’s so funny?”

Carlos kept on with the chuckling as he released her arm and now used both of his to clutch at his stomach as his chuckles grew into laughter, but when Ada remained her ever-serious self and did not laugh along with her own arms folded in that strict posture, Carlos’ laughter faded back into light chuckles and then to complete silence as he now considered the revelation was no joke whatsoever. “You’re… you’re bullshitting me, Ada… right?”

“Though I am a spy and have lied throughout my career to the many people I used, you know me better than to lie to you, Carlos.”

Certainly so, if there was one person other than Leon that Ada trusted, that person was Carlos, and he knew as much, but even so, Carlos couldn’t digest the fact that the young mercenary he took in was the son of the most dangerous bioterrorist the world had ever known. Carlos silence was in itself proof of his shock, as was in his actions, turning and walking closer to the waves till stopping at the point where the waves reached his boots, all while his eyes stayed on the setting sun in the horizon.

“Does he…,” Carlos clears his throat, “Does Jake know this? Does he know his old man is Wesker?”

“We don’t know.” Ada revealed, joining Carlos’ side and joins him at looking at the sunset. “Whether Jake is aware of the blood in his veins doesn’t matter. What matters is that Neo-Umbrella will go after him. When that is, we can’t say, but I just thought that if anybody should know about the situation, it’s you, Carlos, because Neo-Umbrella may decide to track you down if they ever find out you took Jake under your wings.”

“Let ‘em try. Rather have those fuckin’ fanatics keeping Umbrella alive come after me than Jake.”

Ada, as much as she continued to feel for Carlos because she was the same, having worked for the infamous company, did not push the subject on Jake any more than she had, but rather asked of Carlos’ intentions. “What about you, Carlos?”

“What about me, Ada?”

Ada steps closer to his side while Carlos kept his eyes ahead, but listens. “Why haven’t you and Coen gotten involved in the fight against bioterrorism like Redfield and Leon have done? You two could make an impact as much as they have and you know this. Your survival skills are just as better than theirs. After all, it was you who changed everything by saving Jill. It was something that actually impressed Wesker himself when he heard the news of a mercenary saving her life. He thought it was Redfield all along, so why not make a difference?”

Those words of Ada’s just reminded him of Jill’s, make a difference. He also remembered how he broke down in front of Jill, but his explanation to Ada was different as can be, an explosive one as he made that turn and shouts in Ada’s face. “Fuck making a difference!”

Ada took it, unflinching, unwavering and knew there was more in Carlos, letting it all out, that PTSD still there after all these years. 

“You, Leon, Chris, Jill and everybody else! What fuckin’ difference have you all done?! This shit just keeps getting worse and worse ‘cause you all keeping feeding it! You get rid of one maniac that just replaces him! Difference?! Please! There’s no stopping all this crap since day one and you know that! So, what do we do?! We tell ourselves that we’re making a difference, saving lives and doing what we can, but when it’s all said and done, shit didn’t change at all and we’re all just waiting for the next bullshit to happen! So, yeah, I’ll make a difference! I’ll make a difference by telling you here and now that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, will ever make me go back to seeing men and women become infected and having to gun them down!”

Those gentle waves again, crashing ashore was the only sound after Carlos’ emotional outbreak, and Ada stood her ground, just still gazing into Carlos’ eyes that were now burning, so she sheds her grin. “You done?”

Carlos backed up, softly and slowly, agape. “You don’t even fuckin’ care, do you?”

Did that ever trigger Ada, but still, she kept calm, now looking down and listening to Carlos go on. “You go from country to country, city to city, virus to virus and you think you’re making a difference like the DSO and BSAA are?! It’s a damn circulation, a damn game with all of you that won’t stop! Someone has to lose! And the ones caught in the middle are the innocent! Redfield left Kijuju worse than it was, but everyone praised his ass! Kennedy was sent into Spain to rescue the President’s daughter! What makes one life important than all the others?! And now you! Collecting all those virus samples! So you’re not one to talk to me about making a difference! All you do is keep this whole shit going and—!!

Was the cutoff from Ada ever so swift, sweeping Carlos’ feet from underneath him that he fell onto the shore, and Ada was right on top of him with a knife coming to Carlos’ neck, her eyes ablaze. 

“You shut it.” Ada lets out that whisper of threat, a major difference from Jill, and Carlos knew better, so yeah, he had no choice to listen. “If you even think for a moment that we enjoy doing what we do, you couldn’t be anymore wrong, because that’s not the case. We do what have to do because like you said, it’s has to stop someday, but you’re missing something. When you say me, Leon, Chris and Jill are killing, we’re not. We’re FREEING them, Carlos. Who in their right mind, who in the world would want to wander around in their undead condition?”

With the knife still at his throat, Carlos swallows a dry lump, but it wasn’t because of the knife, but because of Ada’s words that went on. “I am not happy with how everything turned out. Believe me. If we could stop and prevent these outbreaks happening in the first place, I would, but we don’t have the luxury of seeing the future. We can only concentrate on today, and that’s your answer. All we can do is prevent as many lives from being infected as possible. Now if you want to wallow here and watch the world suffer, then ok. Nothing will change between us, but I do, Carlos. I do wish for you to make a difference because in my eyes, you are better than Redfield… and even Leon.”

As before, it’s just the gentle waves making the only sound after Ada’s own emotional speech that made Carlos understand that this was not their intention for things to turn out as they have and how highly Ada held him in her eyes, above the famous heroes themselves, Chris and Leon. Guilt was obviously there within Carlos, and he decides to lighten up the atmosphere with his brash-self seeing as the furious spy was still on him, so when a grins pops up, Ada just brings the knife closer. 

“If you think for one second that I’m joking, I’ll let you know how serious I am.”

“It’s not that, Ada.”

“Then what is it?!” a rare shout from Ada, followed by the common chuckle from Carlos. “Not that I’m complaining, but I always thought you were one to have personal space like Supercop.”

It’s now Carlos being the victor in their flirty games given that Ada finally realizes she was still on top, so close to him that their lips were inches away and with her rear basically on his crouch, and another rarity occurs as those fair cheeks of Ada’s blossomed into a blush. She immediately gets up and Carlos does the same, chuckling and rubbing at his neck. “No worries. Won’t say a word to Super-Agent about this. Not that I can anyway.”

Try as she might, Ada couldn’t be mad, nor keep a straight face as told her in the burst of a defeated sneer. “Fuck you, Carlos.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

They laugh together like before, and come shortly thereafter, Ada sheathes back her knife and prepares to end their secret meeting in the same fashion. She clicks on a button of her smartphone that triggered her speedboat to automatically arrive on the scene. This was no surprise to Carlos after their many meetings, but it came with a sudden, soft kiss on his cheek that Carlos did not react quickly to, but eventually does, looking into Ada’s soft eyes of brown that were the same shade as his. 

“Of all the men I’ve met, you’re the only one I couldn’t ever intimidate… Jill is a lucky woman.”

“Likewise, Leon is a lucky man, just loosen up leash on the poor guy, would ya?”

“No promises.” Ada teased, leading to another round of soft laughter, and it’s just what Ada wanted, not wanting the meeting to end on a bad note. “Be careful, Super-Chief, is it?”

Carlos chuckles. “Yeah, you too, Superspy… be careful.”

That was that from the two former Umbrella remnants as Ada made her way to the speedboat. She climbs into it, settles into the driver’s seat and puts on her shades, but before speeding off, Ada looks back at Carlos, not with her grin, but an honest sincere gaze if there ever was one from the spy that went hidden behind the shades. 

“Carlos… the world will need you one day… and you have my word that I will do everything to help you. Till then… don’t die.”

For Carlos’ part, he doesn’t respond back with words, but simply blows a kiss that Ada catches and tosses it overboard, which just made Carlos chuckle all the more. He then watches Ada speed off and leave into the sun setting in horizon and watches and watches till she’s out of view. When she is, Carlos takes a deep breath and thinks all back to Jake and looks down at the apple he took out of his pocket.

“Be careful over there, Superboy…”

Unbeknownst to Carlos, Jake will be just fine with the assistance of the one Jill had taken under her wings, and thus come Sherry’s departure into those fateful events of the C-Virus attacks, but before so was Jill and Rebecca bidding Sherry a good luck farewell as Carlos and Billy had done for Jake…


	7. Farewell, Sisters

The day arrived for the little girl who survived Raccoon City to officially become an agent of the DSO, but there was no grand spectacle, no one there to applaud her, no family, no friends, no big ceremony in a vast auditorium, simply nothing. It was only in a conference hall of a federal building that was full of empty chairs with only one being occupied by Sherry herself at the front row, donning a navy blue suit, but on the day she should’ve been her happiest, she was not because even though she was free, there were still those restrictions, as in no one could know, not even family or friends could know of Sherry becoming an agent. Therefore, it was all to be confidential that there was only three government officials on a small podium with one commencing the so-called ceremony.

“Sherry Birkin, please rise and receive your Division of Security Operations badge and credentials.”

Sherry’s closed eyes open up, fighting off the sadness and standing to make her way to the podium where she received small case that she opens. It’s her badge with her certificate. 

“Now, face the camera.” Said the government official. “Hold up your badge, please.”

Sherry does so, showing her badge to the camera, the photographer snapping photo after photo that no one will ever get to see as they would be kept locked away in the government’s Top Secret files, and for Sherry, she expected it, the fake smile she showed in each photo said it all, and that was it. After a handshake, the officials wrapped up everything by just simply packing up and leaving the conference hall where once alone, Sherry looks back down at the badge, running a thumb across her last name before clutching it against her heart.

“Dad, Mom… I made it.”

That she did, and despite the sadness, Sherry moves on as she always had because she appointed an assignment, one that she requested herself. It was in Edonia, the objective kept a secret: the search of Wesker’s son as the C-Virus attacks showed no signs of slowing down, but before her departure, she was about to receive such a loving goodbye from those who groomed her into the woman she was. It’s Sherry arriving at the place she has called home for the past five years, unlocking the door with her set of keys and shouting out.

“Jill, Rebecca, I’m home!” Sherry sets her things aside, the purse, the keys and the ceremonial casing, but she got no answer as she took off her coat and unwrapped her blue scarf and hung them both on the coatrack.

No answer called for no worry as it always was with both Jill and Rebecca being busy as ever, but she did want their loving company before she had to leave in just few hours. Sherry never liked saying goodbyes over the phone, though always understood, so Sherry always relied on that furry companion to keep her company, and after a whistle, Sherry hears those scurrying footsteps coming from above and down the stairs. Yes, it was Stella, stopping at the top when once Sherry bent forward and tapped at her knees, Stella would come-a-running.

“Come here, girl!” Sherry happily said and would have to hold herself back from getting too emotional since knowing she would miss her, and miss how Stella always greeted her by reaching up with paws to her chest and lapping at her face over and over.

Sherry laughed like she always had, but it was different this time as she hoped it wouldn’t be the last.

Sherry settles Stella down and kneels to ruffle at her ears. “Love you too! Now, are my sisters here, perhaps?”

A happy bark from Stella, who heads off in the direction of the living room with a giggling Sherry chasing after her and through the living room. Though when turning into the dining room, Sherry’s giggling stops like she did entirely, out of breath and it was not just from the running, but the sight of a Royal Blue Velvet Cake, her favorite, set at the center of the long table with a banner hanging from the ceiling that read ‘CONGRATULATIONS’. Only one thing and one thing only came to Sherry’s mind that somehow Jill or either Rebecca found out about her induction into the DSO. How they did, she could only wonder, but Sherry went on ahead, slowly pacing towards and around the table to observe what was on the cake, decorated with the DSO emblem and icing spelling two words, and they were…

‘TURN AROUND’ Sherry does just that, and would you know it, there’s Jill, in a suit, shoving a slice of cake all over Sherry’s her stunned face.

What follows was hysterical laughter from Jill, who was not one to pull off pranks, which is why Sherry was caught off-guard, but she loved it that she started to laugh herself while clearing her face of the cake. Jill doesn’t stop there as she wraps her left arm around Sherry’s shoulders and shows the half-a-heart sign with her right hand. “Smile for the camera, Sherry!”

After Sherry was done clearing her face, she opens her eyes to Rebecca, also in a suit, ready to take a photo through her green smartphone. “Smile, beautiful!!”

It was a smile like no other as Sherry joins Jill’s hand to complete the heart sign while her face was softly pressed Jill’s cheek as she brought in Sherry even closer. After taking the photo that captured the precious moment Sherry will forever cherish, Rebecca presses the record button, and it would be through that First Person View that Rebecca records the next joyful moments. It starts with Jill turning Sherry back to the table and picking up the knife that she hands over.

“Well, Agent Birkin,” Jill proudly teased, “Wanna do the honors?”

“You bet I do, but how did you find out?”

“I have my ways. Now, get to it.”

Sherry doesn’t push it, her smile returning. “Will do, Captain Valentine.” Sherry said through the giggling with Jill giggling all the same, and then comes the moment that for the first time in their friendship, she felt like a mother.

Jill felt as if she watching her daughter cut into a wedding cake and would now be her own woman for Jill was already aware that Sherry will go on to live on own, live out her own career and live in her own home, but wherever that may be, never will Jill ever forget the time she had with Sherry, four years full of laughter and love. Like Carlos with Jake, Jill did not want to see Sherry go, but knew it was now the time for her bird to leave the nest, the bird who had come a long away like she was smiling away while Jill’s somber eyes never left the side of Sherry’s face, a sight that Rebecca zoomed in on at the right moment to capture Jill tucking a strand of Sherry’s hair behind the young agent’s ear, causing Sherry to stop the cutting of the cake and bat her eyes softly at Jill.

“There’s no words to describe how proud I am of you, Sherry,” Jill begins, not even remotely finished, “Everything you’ve done to get you this far, all of it has been you. When you’re further in your career, I want you to take a moment to realize that. Don’t think of me or Rebecca. Think of yourself. Be proud of yourself. Look yourself in the mirror and smile and say that this is me, ‘Sherry Birkin’, the woman that did not let anything get in her way of being who she is, a person who just wanted to make a difference like you told me on that night I picked you up. So never forget why you’re fighting as you go on. Always remember back to those words… make a difference, and I know that you will, Agent Birkin… I’m going to miss you.”

The entire dining room falls silent.

For the one recording, Rebecca contemplated stopping after another heartfelt speech from Jill. Regarding Sherry, she loved every word that will always stay with her like all the other advice Jill gave in their time together, but she was hurting that Jill already knew she was leaving, not wanting to leave either just as much as Jill, though both knew it was time and all they could is enjoy this moment that both will make the most of, especially Sherry for she would take both BSAA member by surprise because after finishes slicing a piece of the cake, Sherry brings it to her mouth where it stops short, and that’s when Sherry has her playful revenge by softly shoving the piece against Jill’s stunned face, and that long silence was broken by Sherry’s ecstatic laughter.

“Oh my.” Rebecca blurted out, continuing to record the joyful scene that would just pick up as Jill clears her face, revealing an impish grin and grabbing another slice with bad, but playful intentions that had Sherry already retreating few steps back with a finger pointed at Jill beginning to pace towards her.

“No, don’t you even dare, Jill!” Sherry laughed out, still retreating, “We’re even! Not another step!”

“Say, Rebecca,” Jill keeps on pacing to Sherry as Rebecca answers back. “Yeah, Jill?”

“What’s the nickname Barry has for me?”

Rebecca thought behind the camera till she lit up in remembering the name. “Oh! You mean Jill-Sandwich!”

“So, I have an idea.”

“Which is?”

Jill grins at the camera while handing the slice on over to Rebecca. “Make sure you hold this, Rebecca, because comin’ right up is another Sherry-Ice-Cream-Sandwich!”

“NO!” Sherry ran off giggling for her life, and Jill chases after her throughout the house.

Getting it all on film was Rebecca, laughing as she too gave chase, keeping up right behind Jill with Stella behind Rebecca. First was the kitchen where Sherry and Jill ran past the pots and pans used to bake the cake, each one cluttering onto the floor. Rebecca had to stop and sigh at what was already a mess of a kitchen. “I’m gonna have a lot of housecleaning to do tonight if this keeps up.”

Stella barks in agreement, but they continue on with the chase, Jill and Sherry still laughing it up as they now ran through the living room where Sherry climbed all over the sofa and Jill hurdling over it, both their actions causing the pillows and cushions to scatter about on the ground. Rebecca groans, of course, before chasing after them again. This time, it was capturing Jill and Sherry rushing up the stairs with Jill trying to reach out to grab Sherry by the ankle. She missed, but did not give up and did not stop laughing, rising and continuing the pursuit of Sherry as if Jill was Nemesis itself. By the time Jill reaches the second floor, she saw Sherry sticking her tongue out and then giggling prior to heading inside her room and locking door.

No rush for Jill since she had Sherry where she wanted, cornered with nowhere to go, and a locked door wouldn’t stop her, having garnered the reputation that it earned a famous nickname.

So patiently, Jill just goes up to the door, but before knocking, she waves for Rebecca to come closer. She does so, recording Jill pulling out her trusty lockpick and knocking twice. “Um, Sherry, you do know what everyone else calls me, right?”

“Yes, Master of Unlocking!” Sherry’s shout of laughter muffled through the door.

“Then peacefully come out and accept defeat before I have to go inside myself.”

“No, go away!”

“I’m only going to count till three, Sherry. One…”

Nothing from Sherry.

“Two…”

Still nothing.

“Three, I’m comin’ in!”

Jill begins the unlocking procedure and bursts inside, but to her amazement, there’s no sight of Sherry. Rebecca follows suit, the scanning the room with her phone and found nothing, so she focuses back on Jill heading to the closet and opening to find nothing but Sherry’s hung clothes, even spreading them apart with still no Sherry to be seen. Jill then checked underneath Sherry’s bed where once more, still no Sherry. Jill shot up with hands on her hips, thinking where she could be, and then it happens, a slight breeze shooting in. Jill shot her eyes to the curtains swaying once, and it took only that for Jill to open the curtains to reveal the window entirely open to the winter night, but there was no footsteps or any sign of Sherry climbing down over the roof as there was no prints in the snow.

“Where the heck did she go?” The baffled Jill said, going into that thinking posture of rubbing at her chin and tapping her right foot against the floor.

Meanwhile, Rebecca went on scanning the room that when she slowly turned around, Rebecca froze for there was Sherry, having simply been hiding behind the door and was now tiptoeing her way out, but giving away her position was a lone bark from Stella.

Jill turned quickly as she could from the window just as quickly as Sherry turned from the door to shout at her furry companion. “Stella, you traitor!”

“Good girl, Stella, now let’s go get her!” Sherry stuck out her tongue again at Jill, and then commenced the last stretch of the chase.

Sherry runs back down the stairs, but it’s at this point Jill picks up ground on Sherry by sliding down the railing and would then go on to cutoff Sherry in the living room, snatching her by the stomach and slamming both of them onto the couch with Sherry landing with her back on top of Jill chest. “GOTCHA!!”

Defeated, Sherry exploded in more loving laughter that increased as soon as Jill started to tickle away at Sherry’s stomach, and she was indeed a ticklish person as she struggled through her pleas. “St-Stop, Jill! I- I can barely bre-breathe after all the run-running, haha!”

“Not till I get my Sherry-Ice-Cream-Sandwich!”

On cue was Rebecca arriving to record the wholehearted scene of Sherry trying to squirm herself out of Jill’s arms, but Jill doesn’t even let Sherry budge as Jill holds on tighter for the moment was here with Rebecca towering over them with the slice of cake in her other hand, grinning down at Jill and Sherry laughing with Rebecca was also laughing. “So sorry, Sherry, but here it comes.”

Down goes the cake, but at the last moment, Sherry simply leaned her head to the side, and the result was the cake smashing into Jill’s face instead, and all the laughter stopped as Rebecca brought a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God… Jill, I’m so—

“Sherry?” Jill cuts Rebecca off.

Sherry snorted out a small laugh she tried to contain, but failed. “Wha-what is it, Jill?”

“Mind getting off me? Because I think I had a change of heart. A Rebecca-Ice-Cream-Sandwich sounds better.”

Sherry no longer tried to contain her laughter because when she moved off, it was now Rebecca running for her life, and as she did, she turned the camera on her own frightened face with Jill running after her in the background while panting was Rebecca. “And that… would be all…for today!”

The recording of the sweet and funny moment ends there, a moment that Sherry couldn’t ask for anything better before her departure, and it’s why an hour later, Sherry was again hurting inside as it was that time to leave, closing the second suitcase of her luggage that contained all her clothing and belongings. Sherry clicks both locks down and grabs both handles of each suitcase and then heads to take her exit, but before she does, Sherry turns with eyebrows furrowed, observing the room one last time that was unlike any other and dear to her heart, and precious memories flooded her mind, such as those nights where she sat crossed-legged on the bed, revising and jotting down notes from the many BSAA and DSO files scattered around her while listening to music through the earbuds connected to her smartphone and with Stella sleeping at the foot of the bed.

There were many other memories she shared in this special room, but it was that one in particular that had Sherry giggling humbly to herself, looking back to how devoted she was to be the agent she was now and did not have any regrets as she would correctly say it herself.

“No turning back now...” Sherry couldn’t put it any better, and after a deep breath, Sherry flicks off the light and closes the door.

Sherry is now outside on the porch in the winter atmosphere where Jill stood watching Rebecca on her knees and comforting Stella, reflecting how Billy was comforting Jax who sensed Jake leaving, and Stella was the same, sensing Sherry leaving. It damaged Sherry to leave, but felt so loved at the same time from her furry best friend who grown along with her in the past four years.

When Jill and Rebecca notices Sherry was ready, Jill walks up to Sherry. “Didn’t think anybody would be sad as me and Rebecca to see you leave till Stella here started whimpering.”

Sherry sheds a hurtful smile, settling down both suitcases and heads to Stella. Rebecca smiles as she moves aside for Sherry to kneel at Stella’s side and hears the whimpering with her own ears and sees the sadness with her eyes, Stella’s ears hung low. 

“Oh, come on now, my bestie. This isn’t goodbye. I’ll be back, so while I’m gone, I want you to take care of Jill and Rebecca for me, okay?”

The BSAA founding members just exchange those confident smiles in knowing they could take care of themselves, but didn’t mind Sherry being worried and wanted any extra protection for them. They then return back to watching how Stella gave her ‘Okay’, and that was giving one lick at Sherry’s face. “Good,” Sherry giggled out and kisses Stella’s nose.

After a ruffle of Stella’s ears, Sherry straightens up and couldn’t hold back another giggle from Jill and Rebecca not just grinning together, but both having their smartphones out and showing they snapped the moment in which Sherry kissed Stella’s nose, and so Rebecca says, “We just needed another thing to remember you by before you leave, little sis.”

“Then you don’t mind if I get one more of you two, right?” Sherry asked, and both were all for it as they kept their smiles when Sherry pulls out her smartphone, but Jill and Rebecca blink when Sherry doesn’t aim the camera.

What Sherry does is run up between Jill and Rebecca for a selfie. “Smile, my sisters!”

Jill and Rebecca do smile, and they again time it right when pushes the button to capture the picture, which was Jill’s kissing Sherry’s left cheek and Rebecca kissing the right cheek while all in all was Sherry, wincing that loving, cringe face that had the trio laughing as they look at the end result that came with both Jill and Rebecca hugging Sherry, officially making her a Sherry-sandwich for what hopefully won’t be the last time, but the touching scene ends with a honk from a car. 

They break from the hug and see a taxicab pulling up, and it was now official. It was time for their little sister to leave, and though the time had come, they kept firm with their smiles.

“Well… that’s me.” Sherry said with a sigh.

She tucks her smartphone back into the pocket of her coat and bends down to grab her suitcases, which felt so heavy, not because of the belongings, but the emotional weight on her shoulders that Jill spotted. So when Sherry straightens up, she stiffens up to Jill cupping her face, expecting another speech, but it wasn’t. There wasn’t even a smile, it was just Jill giving her last order.

“No more ‘Thank Yous’. No more tears. Now go, Sherry, and don’t look back.” Jill finishes with tucking the blue scarf she had given her more tightly, and that was followed with a kiss on Sherry’s forehead, both softly closing their eyes on contact, and like Jill said, Sherry opens her eyes in the midst of turning for the taxi.

Jill and Rebecca stayed on the porch and watched every second of Sherry’s departure, the driver popping up the trunk for Sherry to put her luggage inside. She closes it shut, then opens the back passenger seat and settled in that after she did, the driver asks, “Where to ma’am?”, and Sherry gave the destination through a dry throat, but smiling strongly. “The airport.”

“On the way.”

The drive away to another stretch of a new life began for Sherry, and she kept true to Jill’s words, never looking back, but what she did was pulling out her smartphone again and pull up the group chat she, Jill and Rebecca always had, and they would receive the message, the spotlight shining back onto Jill and Rebecca as the taxicab made the turn on the street and leave their view.

At the same time, they received the text, and both read it in soft voices. “Enjoy the gift. Love you, my sisters.”

They wondered of the gift, but it stabbed at them to see Sherry having to leave the group chat, though understood with all the confidentially that would come with her new career. It would take time for Jill and Rebecca to cope with, but still wished the best for the person who will always be their little sister, no matter the distance or the secrecy. They will always love Sherry, along with the gift she had for them, which would bring them back to their first night together when a car pulls up. Stepping out was a delivery boy carrying what could only be pizza bags that left the two blinking, but sure enough, Sherry’s gift was the first meal they had together as the delivery boy, out of breath, came up to the porch and reads the receipt.

“Um, uh, I have a special, customized delivery for two… um… for Supercop and uh, Dollface??”

Jill couldn’t be any more surprised than she was, but not as so much in Rebecca, sweetly, tearfully giggling and giving a brush of an elbow to Jill. “Sherry must’ve heard us arguing on that night. Remember?”

“Ye-Yeah, I do…” Jill, still trying to get out of her shock, does so eventually as the delivery boy pulls out the pizza box that Rebecca takes, which Rebecca opens once he leaves and drives off, and the cold winter gets all the warmer through the words Sherry had requested on the specialized large pizza and would do one better than Jill from the icing spelling on the cake as Sherry had ordered extra pepperonis and bits of sausages to spell out those two words Jill told her to stop saying, and they were,

‘THANK YOU’

Jill said for no more thank yous, but Sherry, again, did her one better since Jill never mentioned that Sherry couldn’t display it by action, so there it was, a big Thank You on the pizza, and though Jill should’ve been happy as Rebecca was, she wasn’t as Rebecca looks down at Stella wagging her tail happily. “Look, Stella! It’s gonna be a pizza night because of our little sis!”

Happy barks from Stella and happy giggles from Rebecca, but not joining was Jill, worrying Rebecca, more so the way Jill had her head low and shoulders trembling, and it wasn’t from the cold, but keeping those tears at bay, trying to stay true to her own words: no more tears, but Rebecca indeed saw one dropping, and Rebecca asks the same as Billy did to Carlos after Jake’s departure, and it’s the same excuse.

“Jill? Jill… are you—

“I’m okay, heh, just snow in my eyes, is all… think I’m gonna take a ride.”

Rebecca knew better as Billy had, leaving Carlos to his own, and that is what Rebecca does, leaving Jill to her own, who simply walks to her blue sedan in the driveway, get inside, and go for that ride through the dark, winter streets to clear her mind that was full of Sherry. There were many times Jill spares a glance at the passenger seat, triggering flashes of Sherry smiling, laughing and joking while they switched the radio to their favorite stations or even the times when Sherry reached over Jill at a drive-thru and yell when they couldn’t hear her, which was mostly, ‘SHE SAID, LARGE FRIES!’, which just left Jill blinking at Sherry winking back, but yes, these were the memories swarming in Jill’s mind, and as much she wanted to smile, she couldn’t.

Jill would miss her one and only pupil, little sister, but the night was far from over for once she was crossing a bridge, a convoy of sleeked-black federal cars boxed her in that she had to stop, and yet, Jill wasn’t even surprised. She knew who it was, not even trying to get away as she just cooperated by parking to the side, waiting for ‘him’ to arrive, who would’ve been her partner in the RPD if not for the disaster that changed everything. So like Ada had her history with Carlos, there’s Leon Kennedy in his striped jacket and giving two knocks over her window that Jill slides down, her weary expression remaining ahead while giving a weary sigh before responding without even looking at the renowned agent as she knew why he tracked her down.

“Let me take a wild guess.”

“No rush, take your time.” Leon, the cocky agent he could be, grinned, and why he was grinning because of their longtime friendship, both serious but could still joke around here and there.

This showed in Jill, finally looking at Leon with her own grin and scoffing thereafter. “Would you just take me in already? We both know it’s about Sherry.”

“Ding, ding, so how ‘bout we go for a ride?”

Jill shook her head and scoffed again, but just as switches off the ignition and opens the door to step out, Leon closes it back shut, causing Jill to simply blink at Leon no longer grinning, but downright serious. “A ride in your car.”

Jill said nothing, watching Leon order the others to leave while walking around her car to enter the passenger seat that once he did, he merely said, “Drive”, as he fastens his seatbelt.

“Where we headed?”

Leon doesn’t say, but rather pulls out his smartphone with a confused Jill just watching him type a message that he doesn’t send, but which he showed her, and on the screen is the lone word, ‘Jazz’.

Jill, was all the more confused, but when her mind put two-and-two together, that being Leon’s espionage profession and Sherry’s as well, she looks back at Leon, the secrecy. 

Leon nods his head in knowing Jill understood the location, and she did: their favorite Jazz club they would visit whenever Leon was in town as both were the Jazz lovers they are, but it never got to this point that Jill wondered she was being shadowed or even worse, wired by the government. The answer would shortly come whereas of now, Jill turns on the ignition and drives them off to the club. It would be a short ride as Jill pulls up to the club named, ‘Moonlight Sonata’, a piano score Jill perfected, and many minutes later, they both sat at their favorite table in the back, secluded by draped velvet red curtains while in the background was the calm, soft and soothing jazz music playing with a woman singing in French, and this is how the conversation between the DSO agent and the BSAA captain begins in what would be a serious-minded-cerebral exchange between the two decorated survivors of Raccoon City.

“So,” Jill settles her glass of wine down after taking a sip, “We know this meeting we’re having is about Sherry. Your spy games is a dead giveaway.”

Leon, after taking a sip himself, settles down his own glass, and next is him folding his arms over the table and gazing firmly into Jill’s eyes. “How long have we known each other, Jill?”

Jill would give the answer, sitting back with arms crossed like her legs were under the table. “15 years since the RC Trials. Why?”

“I’ve always trusted you and still do. I know you trust me, but there’s only few times I can defend a friend.”

“Comes with your profession, doesn’t it? Should be used to it by now.”

“Think I enjoy it?”

“No, but I’m sure that Ancient Chinese Secret of yours does.”

“I could say the same about your Brazilian Secret that you let go on the run.”

That retort from Leon was the cause of Jill’s eyes flaring, wanting to shout, but seeing as they were in a public environment, her low growl of her defense of the former UBCS mercenary would suffice. “Carlos had no idea about Umbrella. He did everything to save civilians, save a city and even fuckin’ save me when all the time he was left in the dark while Ada, you know, that spy bitch of yours? She knew exactly what Umbrella was doing and even worked for Wesker.”

Leon was always the ever-patient one, and it showed in his calm response in his own defense of the spy. “Ada did know, but it’s for a good purpose. Someone had to be there to infiltrate Umbrella. She’s been putting her own life on the line since day one, and she’ll realize one day. When that is, we both don’t know, but Ada is on our side.”

Jill, still not buying it, scoffed a chuckle. “Is that your brain talking or your dick?”

Leon, even with the insult, remained composed to his friend, and would always do so, as said in his firm and rightfully response. “It’s not my brain or dick talking. It’s my heart talking. Just like yours did for Carlos just now, I’m sure, yeah?”

Jill had no comeback as Leon guessed right, a trait of the agent, able to read through a person, an enemy and even a friend such as Jill, so she calms after a deep breath and leans forward with her right elbow on the table and her hand under her chin, their faces now just several inches from the other’s as their serious air remained, all with the jazz music going on in the background.

“Enough about us, Leon. Back to Sherry. What is it?”

Leon was all for returning back to business, which starts with pulling out his smartphone and placing it at the center of the table. Jill doesn’t think much of it as she looks down, but she will after a push of the ‘Play’ icon from the media player, the recording plays, and it’s Sherry’s voice.

“Teach me how to fight, Jill!!”

Those words were years ago on the night she took Sherry in, and Jill’s astonished gaze at Leon described Jill’s level of shock that the government still kept their eyes and ears on Sherry all along despite being given her freedom, and it doesn’t stop there as Leon plays a string of recordings that included her voice and Rebecca’s.

“I won’t say a word!! And I’ll take full responsibility for it if anyone finds out!! Please, Jill!! Teach me how to fight!!”

“Now, come on. Let’s get something to eat on the way. How does pizza sound?”

“Sounds delicious! It’s my favorite.”

“Jill, if we don’t get Sherry back to base quickly, she’s going to drown in her own blood.”

“This is Captain Valentine! We have an emergency! Agent Birkin is severely wounded! I need a medevac! ASAP!”

Jill was again in shock, hoping the recording, the wiring on Sherry’s personal life would stop there, but it didn’t because the last recording from ‘them’, as in the government, was the playful parting they had just minutes ago would be more enough of proof of just how long they monitored her, and from then, to now.

“No more ‘Thank Yous’. No more tears. Now go, Sherry, and don’t look back.”

Oh, did that do it for Jill, erupting from her seat and ready to deliver a punch. “You have some fuckin’ nerve to—wha??”

What stopped Jill from completing that outburst was Leon catching her wrist, stopping her fist just an inch from colliding against his grinning face. “Let’s dance, shall we?”

Just like that, Jill found herself being gently pulled along by Leon, moving the drapes aside to join the many couples on the dance floor slowly dancing to a now romantic jazz music being played by the band on the stage with the spotlight on the beautiful French singer, but back to our heroes where in the center of the floor, Leon stops and softly pulls Jill into him, keeping her hand up while his other went to back of her waist, and did Jill ever stiffen up, chest to chest with Leon and blinking up at him still grinning.

“Le-Leon, what the hell are you doing?” Jill said quietly, and Leon uses the same quietness. “Nothing. Just a casual dance between friends, so loosen up.”

Jill refuses to do so, but little by little, she finds herself going along with Leon’s delicate strides as he takes the lead, blue eyes meeting the other’s blue when both pull away, but they stay close, and Leon wasn’t grinning, nor was Jill angry, and the tête-á-tête between them resumes through Leon. “Jill, when Claire couldn’t take custody of Sherry, I recommended you to the government. They agreed, but for only a year so that Sherry can get back on her feet. Not that you’ll be training her for four years.”

Jill remembered the arrangement and knew it would catch up to her one day, as in this very night, but she didn’t regret her decision, hence, her soft response back as they kept slowly dancing. “Wesker’s gone. Sherry is her own woman. She doesn’t have to ask for anybody’s permission. Of all the things she deserves is that, to make her own decisions.”

“But, Jill, you don’t understand the measures of what you’ve done and—

“No,” Jill’s cutoff is calm and soft, “It’s you and everyone in the government who doesn’t understand. Her whole life so far has been recorded in confidential files, tape recordings and surveillance photos. That’s all it’s ever been, Leon, and I know it’s for her own protection, but this spying on Sherry needs to stop. Know why?”

“Why, Jill?”

She smiles wholeheartedly. “Because not only she wants to make a difference, but it’s also because Sherry can now protect herself. She doesn’t need me, you, Claire or anyone else anymore, and you should see her. She’ll make you proud.”

Of course he would be proud, but it was the last thing Leon wanted for Sherry, to be involved in the fight against bioterrorism, and Jill saw the worry in his eyes that looked down, but they were brought back up when Jill releases his hand to cup the agent’s cheek, her smile still there. “Remember those words on Claire’s jacket she gave to Sherry?”

“Yeah… Let me Live.”

“Exactly, Leon… I’m just as worried as you are, but it’s Sherry’s time to shine. It’s time for Sherry to write down her life where it’s through personal diaries and not government files. It’s time for Sherry to take photos with loved ones and that are not captured by surveillance. It’s time for Sherry to live, Leon… so Let her Live.

Leon was captivated by those three last words that made sense in every way, and he beats himself because he never once did anything to stop the surveillance that should’ve stopped with Wesker’s death. It wasn’t fair to Sherry that the government he served with all his dedication and loyalty continued to record Sherry’s life. Now that it dawned on him, Leon would do his best to stop it as he would say to Jill.

“Look, no promises that they’ll stop on Sherry, but you got my word that I will talk to my peers and do everything I can to stop it.”

Jill expresses how thankful she was by leaning up to place a gentle kiss on Leon’s other cheek as she still cupped the other. The music ends just as Jill pulls back, both smiling as they joined all the others in the club applauding the band and the singer bowing to the love sent her way. Once the applauding settles, Leon faces Jill, and she to him.

“Goodnight, Leon… thanks for the dance… and take care of Sherry for me if you run into her.”

“Anytime, and will do.”

With one more grin, Leon walks off, and minutes later, Jill sat in silence in the silent confines of her car. She’s doesn’t start to drive just yet, but simply pulling out her smartphone and pulling up the gallery of the many photos she had of Sherry. Jill clicks on the very first one she ever took, a selfie of her and Sherry, the sides of their heads pressed together and beaming at the camera on what Sherry’s first visit to a beach since her release, the reason both wore matching two-piece blue bikinis. Jill, like all the other special moments, remembers back to that day where Sherry soaked up in the sun and was happy as could be while as of the present time, Jill ran a thumb across Sherry’s smiling face, and spoke her last words for the night.

“Wherever you’re headed… wherever you go… be careful, Sherry.” Jill clutches the phone to her heart, puts it away, and drives off into the night, totally unaware that Sherry was heading on a collision course that will collide with Jake’s, and Carlos was no wiser.

The ones they took in, the ones they looked after, the ones they taught everything, the ones they loved like a little brother and a little sister, the fates of Jake and Sherry would intertwine, and more similarities between them and their predecessors, Carlos and Jill, were about to be put in display where instead of the infamous Raccoon City, it would be the Republic of Edonia that will be infamous as well.

Carlos Oliveira, the UBCS mercenary he once was at age of 21, encountering the once elite operative of STARS, older than he, Jill Valentine

Jake Muller, also a mercenary and the same young age of 21, encountering the elite agent of the DSO, Sherry Birkin, also older than him, but of all the similarities, none of them compared to the challenge that awaited the young souls, a challenge both Carlos and Jill endured and overcame.

The Tyrant, NEMESIS, pursuing Jill relentlessly through the city, but in Sherry’s case, it would be a more monstrous and relentless Tyrant awakening in an unknown facility, and its sole purpose: obtain Jake’s blood even if it means pursuing the son of Albert Wesker till the ends of the world.

The Tyrant, USTANAK, which Jake and Sherry would eventually go on to defeat and cure those infected by the C-Virus, fulfilling Jake’s mother’s premonition that he would change the world, and that he did…


	8. Lost Homes

Another set of several years pass, three removed from the C-Virus attacks to be exact with the most recent being the black market dealer by the name of Glenn Arias in which Chris, Leon and Rebecca herself were successful in preventing a bioterrorist attack in New York, and peace had again dawned upon the world. 

For how long, no one knows, but at this very moment, after three years of going about the world and learning from the all the suffering bioterrorism has done to it, the young Jake, now 24 years old, had matured in that span just as Carlos wanted him to. Jake used his talents, spending every drop of sweat and every drop of blood to help villages all around the globe, and though he remained his mercenary image, the prices of his services were modest and humble, an example was helping a little boy in the Middle East where all Jake asked in return was an apple, and for this new and improved Jake Muller, he was returning back to pay a visit to his brothers that was long overdue.

Under a calm, breezy night, Jake’s motorcycle roared through the same stretch in the jungle that took him to the city to head for Europe, but it was now Jake heading the opposite direction, driving back to the cottage, and his heart couldn’t help but beat faster and faster from the anticipation of Carlos’ and Billy’s reaction, no less Jax, and the thought of it had Jake sparing a laugh and kicked up the speed a notch. Jake couldn’t wait to see the ones that took him in and share stories, old and new ones alike as Jake had plenty, but one he wouldn’t share was, of course, the C-Virus attacks or that he was Wesker’s son, unaware that Carlos and Billy already knew. Though it would all come back to haunt him because when Jake sees an orange glow and a large column of smoke rising to the air in the distance from the cottage’s exact location, Jake’s heart dropped, his smile gone.

“Wha… what the fuck??” Jake’s startled voice was drowned out by the roar of his motorcycle, which just got louder as Jake went revved up even faster to the discovery that would be the chain reaction to everything that would follow through the upcoming several years and impact not just the world, but all the major players involved.

The discovery was Jake coming to a sharp, turning stop, the wheels of his motorcycle kicking up the cloud of dirt that when it settles, Jake swipes his shades off to reveal his shocked eyes to the sight he couldn’t, or rather didn’t want to believe.

“No… WHO THE HELL DID THIS?!”

It’s the cottage, ablaze in flames, and from the looks of it, the fire was ignited not too long ago as the cottage stood staying up and the flames still burning strong. Jake wastes no time, setting down the kickstand of his motorcycle, turning off the engine and rushing on over to the home he always loved, so it hurt just as much for the welcoming he never thought he would come to. Jake puts aside these emotions and kicks the door down, and his violent entry caused several wooden beams to collapse, dodging one that fell to his right and dodging one that fell to his left by rolling forward, though there was one more falling directly on top of him that he was able to catch with his strength. His knees shook as he struggled to keep hold of the heavy beam burning his hands, and with all his emotional anger, Jake tossed it aside.

This was not the welcoming he wanted, panting heavily as he looked all around at the flames and yelled over the crackling wood for his brothers and his best friend. “Billy!! Carlos!! Jax!! Fuckin’ answer me!”

No answer came, and his shouts made him cough for air since the smoke was becoming denser by the second, and if the flames weren’t enough, the several beeping sounds coming from every direction would be, and Jake saw it. There were explosives set all around the cottage which was more than alarm for Jake to get out as the beeping grew faster and faster, and that he did, running out of the cottage and diving at the last moment as the cottage exploded into the night.

Jake turns onto his back and sits up, still panting heavily and glaring in shock as there was nothing left of his once happy home. All that remained was the column of smoke becoming larger from the flames continuing to burn at the wooden remains of the cottage, the burning cracking of the wooden structure are the sounds Jake would never forget even though he heard it before, but this was different. It wasn’t just some random building, it was home, a home he couldn’t do anything to stop it from burning to the ground that when it did collapse, a piece of Jake left him, observing his roots where he was given another chance and where he learned much of life now up in flames. The emotional pain was too much that Jake had yet to even budge from the ground, but he does turn his head to the bushes rustling on his right.

It’s a jaguar creeping out of the bushes in that slow, hunting stride as it snarled at him, but this was no ordinary jaguar, but an infected one, its face splitting open to reveal the Plagas organism that took Jake by surprise seeing as this was his first ever encounter with an infected feline, one that rushed at him and ready to pounce at Jake hastily drawing out his Elephant Killer magnum that he bobbled. It dropped onto the ground, and Jake’s eyes flared back to the jaguar pouncing at him, but coming to his rescue was his best friend, Jax, coming out of nowhere to pounce the jaguar out of the way at the last second. Jake, gasping, now sees Jax tumbling along with the jaguar that when they stop, it’s the jaguar on top ready to bite down at Jax, and Jake pays the debt back by shooting the jaguar, its head exploding in the process.

“Jax!” Jake wastes no time to get up and rush towards his best friend, limping while gathering himself onto all four paws. “Jax, buddy, you okay?”

No, he wasn’t, as Jax began to favor his left front leg where Jake spots a large gash, not a bite, that was sure become a scar, but there was an old one that bit at Jake once Jax stopped licking at his wound for when he looks up at Jake, his eyebrows furrowed to the scar, a gray lining, trailing down Jax’s left eye while the eye itself was clouded, meaning Jax lost all vision in that eye. From that alone, Jake knew he had been gone far too long and felt at fault that he would apologize while rubbing at Jax’s face.

“Sorry I wasn’t there for you, but I’m here now, so let’s get this gash patched up.” A strong bark of agreement has Jake smiling a small one.

Jake heads on back to his motorcycle where strapped on the back was a duffel bag. He unzips it to reveal a Bear Commander rifle, a First-Aid kit and two bundles of clothing that was meant only for the two days he packed up for, but now it appeared to Jake that he will be staying much longer than expected. Either way, Jake pulls out the kit and turns to Jax limping to him. Jake then kneels down, opens the kit, takes the First-Aid spray, the roll of bandages and closes the kit shut.

“Alright,” Jake begins. “Let’s see that cut, buddy.”

Jax extends his left frail leg, his paw coming against Jake’s chest. He takes a gentle hold of it and shakes the spray can. “This is gonna sting, so here we go.”

Jake stops shaking the can and presses down on the nozzle, triggering the healing spray over the gash that also triggered for Jax to whimper and flinch its leg back, but Jake keeps ahold of it and comforts his friend. “Shh, it’s okay, Jax. It’s okay.”

Jax settles with those soothing words and doesn’t flinch to Jake now starting to wrap the bandage around the arm, and Jake does this, Jax went on an onslaught of lapping up Jake’s face, and laughs through it while continuing to wrap up the wound. “Alright, alright, love you and missed you, too, buddy.”

Jake finishes the healing by tearing off the last piece of the bandage. He then straightens up and smiles down at his loyal companion. “Well? Give it a whirl.”

Jax does a few circles when after feeling no harm, Jax stops and barks a grateful one up at Jake, getting another chuckle out of the young mercenary, but the fleeting happiness left him as Jake straightened back up to sadly observe the flames of the cottage diminishing where afterwards, Jake exhales as there was no more light of the flames or the crackling of the burning wood, both replaced by the darkness of the night and the chirping of the jungle critters, and the guilt of suspicion was in his voice.

“On the day I decide to come back… this can’t be some fuckin’ fluke… I started this.”

Jake couldn’t be any more right as he would found out himself, and it’s through Jax sprinting towards the part of the jungle where he appeared and barks to Jake. “Huh?”

Jax lets out another bark, his tail wagging frantically, as if to say ‘hurry up, this way’. 

Jake reads this, and without a word, without a second wasted, Jake holsters his Elephant Killer on his right hip, grabs the Bear Commander from his bag and runs off in Jax’s direction. “Lead the way, buddy! Let’s go find my brothers!”

Off he rushes with Jax, the two running through the jungle in the dark of night. Where Jax was taking him, Jake already knew, and so he kept on following and following to that secret place where Carlos and Billy found him in the beginning long ago. He runs and runs, swiping away bushes and branches and hurdling over the logs where all the while, and Jake would take glimpses of the bodies he encountered on the way, and they were not BOWs or J’avo, but actual people, mercenaries and even soldiers that looked to be of the US Marines. In Jake’s mind was him saying, ‘What the fuck?’, but he went on, and the sight Jake comes to after bursting through the last set of bushes was a lone helicopter, docked in the center of the peaceful meadow. 

Jake observes it with that suspiciousness still there in his eyes, but reassurance comes from Jax, jumping into the cabin compartment of the helicopter and barking back at Jake repeatedly, over and over again till Jake went ahead and settled himself into the pilot’s seat, and he was no stranger to piloting a helicopter as he had the best teacher in Carlos.

So there’s Jake, flicking and pressing switches to rev up the helicopter, but then he stops at the moment he looks down at a piece of paper taped to the dashboard.

“A note??” Jake utters under the propellers beginning to spin. He snatches it, and what the notes says brought his hopes up to know they were alive, but worried him all the same as it read as such.

‘Take the helicopter and follow the coordinates. Me and Billy might need the help. Don’t let anyone else know, and one more thing, don’t beat yourself up over this.’

Jake’s shock was again warranted, but Jake swiftly reacted with no hesitation, following the coordinates that will take him between the North and South Atlantic Seas while in the back of his mind, in his heart, the guilt resided from Carlos’ last words in the note, confirming that actions in the C-Virus attacks exposed Carlos and Billy, but didn’t hate for him it, and that did it for Jake, fastening himself in.

“On my way, you two old farts! Just hang on! Let’s do this, Jax!” Jake shouted, and Jax barked as loudly over the propellers now at full throttle, earning that cocky grin from Jake as he lifted off to their destination, and Sherry’s return to the place she once called home would be no different after the three years that had pass since the C-Virus attacks where her own actions, like Jake’s with Carlos and Billy, implicated Jill’s and Rebecca’s lives…

\---

“What… what is going on?” The DSO agent said, and her heart dropping seeing the same orange glow and the column of smoke Jake arrived to in the jungle, but now it was Sherry in the states on a snowy night, driving slowly when she wanted to slammed down on the gas, however, could not with the entire neighborhood out in droves.

Families, men, women and children watched from the pavement and on the sides of the street with several police cars.

The leading officer in charge was on his radio requesting fire trucks and ambulances, which only meant the home they were watching that was up in flames happened minutes ago as there was not a single firefighter to be seen, just the many officers keeping the people at a distance, and as much as she didn’t want to believe it, she knew it was. Before even arriving, Sherry knew it was the home full of all the loving memories she shared with Jill and Rebecca, so her heart sunk even further when she finally arrived to see the house ablaze with her own trembling eyes that reflected the flames. Her first thought were her sisters’ and her best friend’s safety while her second thought was who could be responsible, daring enough to attack the home of two prominent BSAA founding members, but Sherry had enough of the questioning thoughts as she unfastened her seatbelt and steps out of her car.

Sherry hurriedly brushed her way through the flock of people and gets to the yellow tape the officers had secured around the perimeter with one stopping her from passing. “Ma’am, you can’t go through.”

Sherry flashed her DSO badge. “Agent Birkin.”

With that, the officer lifted the tape for Sherry to pass, but never did he think, nor all the other officers, expected Sherry to run towards the house as the lead officer on the radio shouted at her. “Hey, you can’t go inside!”

“The hell I can’t.” Sherry muttered under own breath before wrapping the scarf around her nose and mouth, and for those watching, the neighborhood and officers, they were stunned and gasped to Sherry kick down the door and rush in and disappear from their eyes.

Once inside, Sherry tries not to let the tragic sight get ahold of her, especially the last memory of running around the house with Jill happily chasing after her and Rebecca recording all of it, but now was not the time. Sherry shakes off the happy memory that was now replaced by her rushing through the burning home, avoiding the heavy patches of flames. Her first destination is Jill’s room, lowering her scarf from her mouth to cry out.

“Jill!!” Nothing and no sight of Jill, and off Sherry goes to Rebecca’s room, also crying out her other sister’s name, “Rebecca!” but left with the same result, no response or any sight of her.

Sherry was half-comforted by the fact that there was no body and that the two were more than capable to let a house fire get to them, but the other half of her, the doubt would come through the distant bark as they would never leave their furry companion behind, meaning Jill and Rebecca had to have been captured, but again, Sherry shook it off and rushed in the direction of Stella’s repeated barks coming from upstairs… her old room.

“Stella!!” Sherry rushes up the stairs. “I’m coming, girl!”

Unlike the other rooms, the door remained closed, and after kicking it, Sherry moved away in time as a burst of flames shot through. Sherry rushes inside and saw Stella trembling on the bed Sherry slept on for those four years when now, though, was Stella, surrounded by the flames and barking at Sherry to save her, and would do as such with no hesitation, running and leaping through the wave of flames. Sherry lands in front of Stella, who laps Sherry’s face over and over again, another resemblance of what Jax had done to Jake, and Sherry laughs like Jake as her cheerful words were also similar.

“Love you and missed you, too, bestie, now let’s get out of here!”

And that they did, Sherry hauling up Stella and with Sherry using her own body to shield Stella from the flames that Sherry jumped through, carrying her best friend and rushing back down the stairs, but Sherry stops to the beeping sound that Jake had also done to. Sure enough, Sherry looks around, explosives charges set all about that were the same Jake encountered in the cottage, and as such, the beeping grew faster and faster that it was time for Sherry to run faster than ever out of the house when upon so, Sherry yelled out to those still looking.

“GET BACK, EVERYONE!!”

The warning couldn’t come at a better time as the police and the locals made quick distance, all of them running from the explosion that triggered into the snowy night and one that almost sent Sherry flying forward, but she stood her ground and turns, her breath showing in the cold air as she was heavily breathing and looking sadly upon the house she cherished while in her arms was Stella, whimpering, whining sadly as Sherry sets her down with the fire trucks finally arriving on the scene to put out the fire, and even as they did, it did nothing to quell the hurt Sherry was feeling. she watched her beloved former home become a pile of rubble in a cloud of smoke from the extinguished flames as the ambulances are next to arrive with the very first medic rushing to Sherry and Stella.

“Are you okay, ma’am?”

Physically, she was okay, but emotionally, not very much as Sherry just gave a saddened nod while officers and forensics rushed inside to begin their investigation into what caused the fire, but Sherry, by the explosives she saw before escaping, knew there was foul play behind it, and just before she was about to inform the authorities as such, Stella starts to paw at Sherry’s leg. Sherry would look down and blink at something she failed to see throughout the panic. What she saw was a lone key, Jill’s lockpick and a slip attached to Stella’s collar. Sherry takes the key first, the lockpick second, and then the slip and reads the words that were not so different from Carlos’s note to Jake, especially as it had the same direction as Jake’s and the same reassurance that she was not to blame, as Jill wrote herself.

‘Remember the beach I first took you to? You’ll find my speedboat there. Follow the coordinates. Me and Rebecca will be needing your help, and don’t inform anyone. We’ll be waiting, and Sherry… don’t blame yourself.’

“So me playing a part in the C-Virus attacks was responsible after all.” Sherry’s voice, barely a whisper, held much guilt, but with one look down to the key in the palm of her right hand, Sherry’s determination overweighed that blame, her hand clenching into a fist around the key. “Let’s go, Stella.”

Was the loyal canine ever ready to go that no later than 30 minutes had passed, Sherry was more than halfway to the designated location, the speedboat going at the highest knots it could, thus the boat vaulting over the small waves with both Sherry and even Stella managing to keep balance. Sherry kept at this pace through the night that became lighter as in the snow becoming rain the further she went out into the sea where the only light was the moon, faded behind the dense, gray clouds on this dark night that would reunite them all. First up was Sherry, spotting an aerodrome flashing its beacon that could only come from a communications tower, and once Sherry got even closer, a stunned Sherry came to a steady brake as what came into her clear view was an isolated island with the grand communications facility itself surrounded by deep forestation.

“Just what is this place, and how come no one ever noticed?” Sherry asked herself, but the night would get more puzzling because past the towering communications towers she was observing, Sherry was able to spot a helicopter approaching from the southern coast of the island. “Who… who could that be?”

The harsh and dark conditions made it impossible to get a clear look as to whether the helicopter bore a friendly or an enemy insignia on its hull, let alone getting a clear view of the pilot, and as for the pilot, he too spotted the speedboat on the northern coast and also wondered the same, and that would be Jake. “What kind of place is this and who in the hell is that on the boat?”

Fate continues to play its role as Sherry docked on the northern shore while Jake lands on the southern shore, both a few miles away and would advise their furry counterparts with the same advice for when Jake powers down the helicopter and steps out of it, Jax was all the ready to follow, and would’ve if not for Jake stopping him. “No, Jax. Stay here and guard the chopper till I get back.”

After a small whine, Jax agreed, having laid down and watch Jake run off towards the southern part of forest with his magnum. 

No different was Sherry, shutting down the speedboat and hopping out of it with Stella ready to do the same. “Stella, girl, stay here. I’ll be fine.”

Sherry will eventually find out wrong she would be, but Stella obeys, also letting out a small whine as she laid down with ears low, watching Sherry ready her Triple Shot and head through the northern part of the forest and did not take any precaution to take it slow or easy, and neither did Jake. Sherry ran and ran, so did Jake on his end, both were running in the same direction of the communications tower getting closer and closer in each of their perspectives through the storm getting heavier and stronger that when the strike of lightning struck, the reunion happens, both Sherry and Jake coming to a stop at an open patch of the forest with weapons aimed, but those weapons immediately lowered down while their eyes shot wide.

“Jake…??”

“Sherry…??”

Neither couldn’t get out any out more than just their names as a sudden grenade landed between them with no chance to turn back, blowing them several feet away from one another with their bodies crashing, splashing onto the wet soil. 

They scrambled, struggling to get up, and what comes next is Sherry screaming out in agony. 

A surge of emotion fired through Jake that overwhelmed the pain, lifting his head and see a pair of figures shrouded in long dark raincoats standing over Sherry, one a man, the other a woman, who was viciously twisting the heel of her stiletto boot into the back of Sherry’s right thigh that the unknown woman delivered another stomp into. It resulted in another agonizing cry from Sherry as she pressed her forehead and dug her fingers into the wet soil, which triggered Jake’s furious anger that stemmed from all the worry, all the love he held for her as his thunderous growl matched that of the thunderous storm.

“Sherry!” Jake erupts onto his feet, but for the other shrouded figure, the man’s arm whipped out of its raincoat to throw a small gadget that planted onto Jake’s chest that has him stopping and immediately looking down.

What Jake sees is a blue light emitting from the device, and then with glaring eyes, he burns his gaze at the malicious grin underneath the hood as he held up what seemed to be a trigger device that upon pressing the red button, the gadget over Jake’s chest discharges a surge of electricity massive enough to cover his entire body that sent Jake onto his knees, growling and growling ever louder through the excruciating pain that he could do nothing from stopping it just as Sherry could do nothing to save him, but simply watch and cry out his name as he had done for her.

“Jake!!” Sherry’s cry was not a call to save her, but a cry full of worry, all for Jake, still hopeless, still helpless to do anything but watch Jake entrapped by the shocking waves of electricity keeping him down, but Sherry does try, getting up and flicking out her Stun rod, only to be pulled back harshly by her wet hair and her Stun Rod snatched from her hand. “Ah!!”

“Now, now, little Birkin,” The shrouded woman pulled Sherry’s head back and giggled naughtily in Sherry’s ear. “Don’t be so quick to miss the show. Enjoy it. Look at his eyes, little Birkin. Look how much little Wesker means to you. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Sherry, even though in pain, did stare into Jake’s eyes burning into hers with such compassion that it overwhelmed his own pain of the ongoing electrocution, overwhelming anything and everything that would harm Sherry’s life as the shrouded woman would say so herself after another naughty giggle. 

“Don’t you see it, little Birkin? You do, don’t you? There’s love in those eyes of his, but underneath them is what you’re afraid of. You see that anger yourself, a menacing anger so enormous like his father’s that he would sacrifice all the world just for you. He would die for you, kill for you, something you wouldn’t want, and oh can I ever see it, plain as day. You would tell him yourself. You would tell him that you’d rather trade your life for the billions… and that you’ll love little Wesker no matter what the world says about him.”

Truthful as it was, Sherry couldn’t deny it, her soft and hurtful gaze never leaving Jake’s burning one, who on his part wouldn’t deny what the woman was claiming. He would exchange the world all to keep Sherry alive.

The mysterious woman’s lips forms into a victorious grin as she once again whispered into Sherry’s ear, and Jake heard it as such where though he couldn’t see the woman’s eyes, what she would say were directly for him.

‘Now… let’s just see how right I am, shall we?” With those words, she uses Sherry’s own Stun Rod against her, stabbing into Sherry’s spine that she cried out in agony like never before in her life, crying out to the thunderous heavens, as did Jake’s growl.

“SHERRY!!”

The woman kept on, grinning and plunging the Stun Rod stronger against Sherry’s spine till Sherry couldn’t withstand it any longer, collapsing onto the soil with no movement whatsoever, and that did it for Jake, the result being what the mysterious figures sought, which was testing the limits of Jake’s rage that had already been tested throughout his life, but never like this as those blue eyes that he inherited from his mother’s now brimmed that crimson red of feline pupils that could only come from his infamous father. Therefore, Jake’s, or rather the blood of Wesker’s in his veins, awakened as Jake easily fought off the electricity to snatch the device off his chest and crush it in his hand, but though he was free, he performs the mad-dash his father was known for.

However, a lone tranquilizer dart to the left shoulder from the shrouded man stops Jake, but he doesn’t fall.

Jake’s eyes, they keep brimming red as he rips off the dart and proceeds with his threatening stride that just earned him another dart, this time to the right shoulder, another dart that Jake just rips off and continues on, struggling, however just like his burning crimson eyes trying to stay open.

“Interesting,” said the shrouded man. “Maybe third time is the charm.” It would be so because after one more dart to the neck, Jake sinks onto his knees, and with no danger, the mysterious figures revealed themselves.

The man, lowering his hood is Raymond Vester while the woman, also pulling her hood down is Jessica Sherawat, both Tricell operatives watching Jake slowly collapsing next to the unconscious Sherry as he, too, would fade to unconsciousness, but before he does, those crimson, feline hues of his father’s revert back to the gentle blue of his mother’s that softly stared at Sherry’s face with his hand reaching out for her, but when it dropped, when Jake succumbs to unconsciousness, a flashback happens, and it wouldn’t go without Jake’s whispering her name.

“Sher…ry…”

\--

Running steps, running fast as they could upstairs through an apartment in Serbia, footsteps that belonged to a fifteen-year-old Jake, carrying a bag full of money and in tattered clothing while covered with bruises and scars all around that he suffered from his many of recent mercenary jobs to support his mother who was lying on her deathbed, but this young Jake felt so happy as he made the money for the final surgery, so when he bursts inside, all of his hopes, all of his love, all of the belief he had in the world left him as what he saw were the doctor and his two nurses, all of them giving the young Jake a saddened face. Jake, at the moment, doesn’t say a thing, his hopes still remaining strong, but as the nurses pass by him and leave the room, the doctor gives his diagnosis, a whisper, one that will tear Jake apart.

“It’s too late, son… cannot save her.”

The doctor delivered the tragic news, and after he turned to leave, Jake saw his mother, Jana, gone was her flowing red hair and yet, still weakly smiling at him, but Jake wouldn’t have it, grabbing the doctor’s arm.” Hey, the money’s right here. Get to work.”

“Jake, stop, it’s okay.” Jana weakly said, but still, Jake wouldn’t have it. “No!”

Jake harshly tightened the hold on the doctor’s arm, and if not for his mother yelling out through her fragile state, he would’ve ripped the man’s arm out, but Jake does stop to his mother’s weak cry. “Let him go and you come here this instant!”

If anyone could direct an order at Jake that he would follow, it was his own mother, and Jake stops, releasing the doctor, who scampers onto his feet and rushes outside in fear that when it was just Jake and his mother, Jake slammed the door shut and delivered a punch to the wall aside of the door that it left a large dent while shouting the word, “FUCK!”.

Jake, it took all the world for him to cope with the defeat, the suffering that his mother could not be saved, so that bag of money he was carrying meant nothing. He dropped it the moment he heard his mother weakly giggling out, and did it ever hurt him. “That’s just many of the other walls that needs fixing because of your temper.”

He didn’t want to turn. He had enough of seeing his mother in such a fragile state, but what hurt the most was how Jana remained spirited, smiling back at him when her son does turn to her, and this time, Jana has her right hand out, reaching for him. “Come here, Jake.”

No son, no daughter would want to go through what Jake was going through at this moment, but Jake does not disappointment, sacrificing all his sadness for his mother’s happiness to see her son approaching her bedside with a letter in other hand, and yes, with his eyes full of tears and with her mother reaching up to rub at his bruised face. “Look at you… you’ve been getting into all that mercenary mess again, haven’t you? And still so handsome.”

That stab of the heart, did it ever stab at Jake, bringing a hand over his mother’s over his cheek and keeping the tears inside. “I was late… I’m so—

“Sorry?” Jana guessed right with another weak giggle, resulting in another trembling smile Jake tried to sustain, but couldn’t, his head sinking low while hearing his mother persist so softly. “Jake, wish to know something?”

“Yeah, what is it, mom?” Jake coarsely said, keeping his head down and listens to his mother’s happy voice. “I had this dream…”

Jake slightly lifts his head, his eyes full of tears where there was none in his mother’s, just pure happiness as she went on. “You, meeting this beautiful girl, much older than you and would do everything to protect you. Tell you everything will be okay. That you won’t have to worry about her. She’ll hug you. She’ll kiss you, bear you such a beautiful child that would be just as gifted as you are… give you a wonderful family.”

Jake broke out a chuckle as it was hard to imagine being a father, though his chuckle was a beautiful sound to his mother’s ears no matter how heartbroken it was, but the comfort of knowing there would be someone there, comforted Jana in her last moments as Jana’s life was fading that Jake caught as his mother’s hand that fell from his cheek. “Mom? Mom!!”

“I’m… I’m okay…now, before I leave, I—

‘Don’t be talkin’ like that.”

“You listen to me!” Jana croaked out with her little strength, and the effort has coughing that Jake immediately clutched down onto her shoulders, “Mom! Stay with me!”

“I’m ok,” Jana said, her weak smile still ever present. “I will always be okay knowing you are, now listen.”

Jake gives the last thing his mother wanted, to simply listen, but it wasn’t as simple as his heart was in shatters. He wanted to run away, so, so far away, but he stays and listens.

“I was alone most of my life till I had you. When I’m gone, you may think you’ll be alone, but it won’t be long that you’ll be surrounded by dear friends. It may take time to earn their trust and love. We all need time. You’ll find out why one day that it may be more difficult for you than others, but never give up. Don’t lose hope in people and this world that will need you one day, a world you will save. The reason you are special, the reason others may not trust you is in this letter that I’m holding my hands, but before I go, I want to tell you myself about your father that though it only lasted for one day, he gave me everything… that everything is you… I… I love you, my little, strong Jake Muller… go change the world.”

And there it was, the life leaving out of Jana Muller, her head slumping to the side over the pillow, her eyes softly closing shut for the last time, but as always, her lips were smiling.

Jake’s reaction to losing his mother? He was withholding all the pain, all the hurt, all the suffering, all the rage, all the wrath that this was the first time the blood of his father’s showed within him, his eyes burning that crimson red and his pupils shaping into that feline form, but there was a major difference. His sadness overwhelmed that of his anger as there were tears in those fiery red eyes that look to the letter in her hands, both folded over her stomach where she carried him for those 9 months pregnancy. Jake picks it up and reads the labeled through his fiery eyes, and they were…

‘For My Dear Jake’

What the letter contained, the words within them is only Jake will know, words that will keep him going strong as he would eventually awaken, and it would be to another nightmare of a crisis with old friends and new friends alike, especially Sherry…


	9. Of Reunions and Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry for the long buildup, but here we are! All ships are all sailing! Valeveira! Shake! and Reilly! And I appreciate all the kudos and so much of the love! Thank you all!

Quietness.

Silence.

Peacefulness, as one would seem, but it would not be for those awakening to a blaring sound of a siren that was followed by showerheads sprinkling over the captured six heroes, and no surprise, those six heroes all awakened to the lights jolting on one by one throughout a lone dome with no equipment or no BOWs inside. 

It was just them, all restrained to a chair with their wrists all bound behind them as they were aligned in pairs. That being Sherry with Jake in front of her, Billy with Rebecca in front of him, and Jill with Carlos, and oh yes, this is how the reunions happened, each of them awakening to each other’s shocked faces that neither could get a word out. It was only 3 years removed for Sherry and Jake, unlike their older counterparts where it was 18 years for Billy and Rebecca, whom both held softness in their eyes, but when it came to Carlos and Jill, there was nothing but fire within them, and they wouldn’t be ever shy as to let their emotions show, and it begins with Jill, all the while would be the others blinking on at the fiery, yet, funny exchange.

“You idiot!!”

“How the hell am I an idiot?!”

“Did it ever occur to you to think this was a trap?!”

“Maybe… maybe not. I don’t know. I’m not a psychic.”

“Are you kidding me? Are you fuckin’ kidding me with the jokes already?!”

“Why does that sound familiar?” Carlos scoffed to the side, and it earned him a kick to the shin from Jill since it was the least she could do. “OW! What the hell happened to personal space?!”

“I gave you instructions to wait for me on this island! Now look what you got us into for your impatience!” Jill basically gave the whole story behind the situation, and still, Carlos being Carlos, remained his brash self at the new, highly decorated BSAA operative in Jill.

“Ya’ know, I liked you better when you had short brown hair and kicking ass in street clothes! Now you’re just this pretty blonde with a ponytail and decked out in that fancy uniform and wearing a cap! Speaking of which, how is that cap supposed to protect you against BOWs anyway?!”

“And I liked you better with your moppy hair, and my cap is to protect my mind from your stupidity brainwaves, how’s that, Mr.Undercut?!”

Carlos admits defeat. “That wasn’t very nice. I like my hair.”

“Carlos, cut the crap!”

“Enough, Jill!”

Those last two shouts were from both Billy and Rebecca, the former and latter respectively, and they did, both Carlos and Jill going quiet, but their eyes still on one another, but now the spotlight goes onto the pair that defeated Professor James Marcus, and like Jill, it is Rebecca beginning the reunion with a soft gaze as softly as her voice. “Why, Billy… why 18 years and never a phone call or a letter?”

“Believe me,” Billy started, “Believe me there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think of reaching out to you. I just needed to clear my name first. All those years, couldn’t find anything, and even if I did, it would just put you in a problem for declaring me dead.”

“I never cared for that, Billy!” Rebecca cried out, and even lunged forward in her chair. “You were always innocent in my eyes! I could care less of what others thought! I… I just wanted to know if you were doing okay.”

“And what would that have done, Rebecca? It would’ve just made things worse and—

“It would’ve made me happy!!” Rebecca cuts Billy with a cry that went on. “Any clearance, any reassurance knowing you were okay would be just fine! You didn’t think there wasn’t a day that I think about you either?!”

Billy didn’t need to say another word, and it coincided with Jill’s and Carlos’s, their reason being alike, not wanting to implicate the women they loved, but the past caught up with them, as it did with the youngest pair, whom from their actions, implicated Carlos, Jill, Billy and Rebecca in a reunion they always wanted, but never like this. Regardless of such, Jake had his head down the entire time, not realizing that Sherry throughout that time, she had her eyes on him, and now it was their turn with Sherry starting in such a soft tenor that had the others looking and listening on.

“Jake… look at me, please?”

“Isn’t listening just enough, Sherry?”

“Not for me, no. It’s not.”

“But I take it your friends won’t like seeing me.”

That’s when Jake raises his face, a sorrowful one directly at Sherry’s own sadness, but Jake could feel the burn not from Rebecca, but from Jill, the two STARS operatives looking at the young face that resembled their former captain, and Jill let it know just like Chris did, but she already had knowledge of it, as said in her harsh introduction. “You look like your father. You just stay away from Sherry, got it?”

It was a major contrast to Chris’s remark. Jill’s defense felt like a mother detesting her daughter from dating a man she didn’t approve of, so Jake sunk his head low again and says nothing back, neither does a saddened Sherry as both expected much, but Carlos comes to Jake’s defense. “Hey, back off, alright? He’s nothing like his old man.”

“You never knew Wesker, so you keep shut, Carlos.”

“And you never known a thing about Jake because he saved this whole damn world with just a drop of his blood!”

“I understand that, but it doesn’t mean putting Sherry in harm!”

“In harm? Sherry saved my Superboy’s ass like you saved mine, remember, Supercop?!”

Jill went shut after Carlos “Super” argument, but he was right. Jake spoke the same words Carlos had to Jill about Sherry, both women saving them, and emotions died down with Sherry, of all people, to everyone’s amazement, it’s her giggling despite the situation they were in, and that meant Sherry was already taking a liking to Carlos brash behavior that rubbed on all who met him as she looked to Jake, lighting up the mood since it’s all she could do. 

“Is that why you called me Supergirl, Superboy, hm?”

Jake just groans to the side, even blushing. “Yeah. Super-Chief over there tends to give nicknames.”

“Super-Chief?!” Jill exclaimed, giving another kick to Carlos’s shin. “OW! Personal space!”

Getting lost in the shuffle was Rebecca and Billy, but not so much with Billy stepping in. “Giving a nickname is just one of many Carlos’s talents. Other than his constant yapping.”

“I agree with you on that.” Jill approved, but surprisingly, not Rebecca, intrigued at that. “Does Billy have a nickname?”

Everyone went shut, never realizing Billy had a nickname, and most baffled was Carlos, being his best friends of 18 years, so now was the time, yet not. “Hmm…haven’t thought of that.”

Jill growls. “Carlos, I swear, you fu—

“Well, we’re not going anywhere soon. Any suggestions?”

“Super-Tattoo?” Jake scoffed out, followed by a giggling Sherry. “Super-Marine?!”, then comes Rebecca with the perfect one. “Super-Grunt!”

“I’ll go with that, I guess.” Billy preferred, and there’s Carlos putting the nail in it. “So, Super-Grunt it is!”

Sherry and Rebecca were giggling whereas Jake and Billy couldn’t help but to chuckle with Carlos laughing, but once again, in their situation, Jill, who wasn’t partaking in the joking, just kept burning her stare onto Carlos who once he realized it, Carlos just went serious. “God, do you laugh or even smile anymore?”

“Look at us!” Jill shouts back, shuffling her cuffed wrists behind her back. “This isn’t some game!”

“And we can’t help that, Jill, so take it easy. Something will work out. They would’ve killed us by now. Let them tip their hand first and we’ll take advantage.” Carlos calmly advised, finally serious, and Jill does believe him even since after all, Carlos always seemed to be right despite his brash behavior, and he would be so again as their captors would play the first hand, just as he said.

The lone entrance, the lone door into the clandestine, gleaming porcelain dome swooshed open, and enter the pair of Tricell operatives, Raymond and Jessica, still donning their black raincoats, but with their hoods down, revealing their faces, Raymond’s chiseled one bearing a hardened expression with his red hair still in that radical fashion while Jessica’s brown hair flowed past her shoulders, but it was the evil grin she was sending her old BSAA teammate in Jill, who was sending daggers right back at the traitor and makes it known through a low growl.

“You backstabbing bitch.”

The women, that being Rebecca and Sherry, were not surprised as they knew of Jessica’s betrayal on what was the Queen Zenobia incident, but the men were surprised as they just kept shut and watched the history that went cold between Jill and Jessica, a relationship that could’ve been a sisterly bond, if not for Jessica’s flamboyant and alluring attitude that did not fit the means of a BSAA operative or fit within the professional confines of headquarters, and to this day, Jessica was well aware that it was Jill who was always her fiercest critic for how Jessica went about herself, on and off the field, as would say the mischievous Tricell operative approaching Jill with her grin still ever present, so ensues the back and forth engagement as Jessica stops before Jill.

“Tsk, tsk. Not so nice to begin our happy, little reunion with a curse. I thought you would miss me. Remember all those fun times we had? Going out eating, shopping together, watching late night movies at my place.”

“If only you didn’t betray us and behaved like a true operative, then yeah, I would’ve missed you, Jess.”

A naughty giggle from Jessica is her response. “Ooh, how I missed you calling me that. Those were the days. Jill and Jess, sisters-in-arms, remember that? What they used to call us.”

“I remember, and it could’ve been true if you just stuck to the guidelines.”

“Guidelines?” Jessica, no more grinning, but now angry as she got up close and personal, bending down to be in Jill’s face. “Is that what it is, Jill? Even now. Well, I still say fuck the guidelines. The BSAA wanted me to be some robot, some slave to their damn professional views and what hurts me the most is that it was you who was the first to criticize me when all I did was, oh, what was it again… cause friction, hm? I’m sure you remember that.”

Remorseful Jill was, recalling it all, her eyes furrowing, but remained strict. “I also remember that, Jess, but you were causing friction. I just wanted what was best for you, best for us. I always defended you, but I couldn’t as long as you went on.”

“Wrong!” Jessica shouted in Jill’s face, and stayed there. “You chose them, chose the BSAA over me! You tried to get me to be someone I wasn’t! Why was it so wrong?! All for guidelines?! Guidelines that you chose over a sister! And that’s the sad part, Jill… the BSAA, I can care less of, but betraying you… that was the worst part.”

Jill takes it all in, not saying a word back, but does keeping looking into Jessica’s eyes that were fired up with what was the honest truth, and Jill believed it, but then as usual, Jessica puts aside those emotions and returns back to her usual mischievous games, trailing a finger along Jill’s chin. “Or maybe it wasn’t the guidelines, but you were just jealous of my sweet ass and my uniform getting to Chris, yeah?”

Jill’s anger returned, and hearing Chris’s name brought Carlos into the fold. “So you were dating Redfield all along.”

Jessica, grinning, moves to the side so that Jill’s saddened eyes could meet those of Carlos that held no anger or disappointment, just looking solemnly back at Jill, and before Jill could clarify it all, Jessica goes on with the teasing as she now turned her attention to Carlos. “My, my, Jill, this just keeps getting better! First the strong, hero Chris Redfield and now you have this delicious thing over here! I should be the jealous one! Now, since it’s always been Chris in your eyes, you shouldn’t mind that I help myself to Oliveira here.”

Jill, once again, her anger returns, and would it go through the roof when Jessica lowers her raincoat to unveil the seductive wetsuit that exposed the right part of her rear, and she didn’t take long to park herself all over Carlos’s lap, wrap her arms around his neck and deeply kiss him, which he was returning back. It angered not only Rebecca and Sherry, but also Billy and Jake at how Carlos wasn’t shy whatsoever just when he had them laughing it up not too long ago, even going to the lengths of making his moves to Jessica’s neck, peering past it to meet Jill’s gaze burning even more and more there was evidence of all things: jealousy, and Carlos doesn’t letup, going to biting down on Jessica’s ear that Jessica giggled naughtily, losing herself in the moment that she didn’t realize that Carlos pulled off the earring, which would come into play, but right after was Jessica cupping his face and grinning down at Carlos.

“Great kisser. What did you think of me?”

Carlos would play Jessica for a fool as he slyly chuckles. “Meh, I prefer something more on the French side like Supercop over there.”

All the naughtiness within Jessica left her and was replaced by anger whereas Carlos just peered past her to wink at the still-angry Jill. “Didn’t think I know about you being French, now did ya?”

“I’m also Japanese.”

Carlos simply blinks. “Really?”

Jill simply growls. “Yes, really.”

“Wow… how ‘bout that?”

Jessica reached her limit after the exchange between Carlos and Jill, drawing out her knife and putting it to Carlos’s neck and would’ve sliced if not for Raymond interrupting. “That’s enough, Jessica. We did our checkup and still have our orders.”

Whom the orders came from would be explained later, but now was Jessica stepping back, gathering her coat and walking off to take her exit, along with Raymond relaying back to their employer on the other end of his comms’ device in his ear. “Prisoners still secured. On our way back, sir. Vester out.”

Raymond also leaves, and once that automated door swooshed closed, Carlos got to work. All eyes, those of Jill’s, Sherry’s, Rebecca’s, Billy’s and Jake’s focus on Carlos carefully spitting out Jessica’s earring and land precisely onto his right palm, and the most amazed was Jill, watching Carlos use the earring as a lockpick to release himself. He hurried up to release Billy and Jake, then onwards to Sherry and Rebecca, but he stops with Jill, bringing about Sherry to ask as she rubs at her wrists, and so yet another comical event ensues between Carlos and Jill.

“What’s wrong?” Sherry asked.

Sherry’s questions is followed up by Jake’s. “Go ahead and free her.”

Billy and Rebecca would do the same, respectively. “Carlos, c’mon! Let her go already.”

“Please, let Jill go.”

Carlos still hesitated, getting behind Jill but yet doesn’t release her because he knew Jill remained angry at the kiss and he knew what was coming, so he would ask, “Um, promise you’ll behave and won’t hurt me after I let you go, Supercop?”

Through clenched teeth behind tightly closed lips, with her right brow twitching out of much irritation, Jill gets it out. “Promise.”

Carlos doesn’t buy into it, but without further ado, he releases her, and does Jill ever pop and turn to stride at him with a menacing look that had him retreating. “Hey, hey, now, PERSONAL SPA—?!?!”

The cutoff? It was Jill actually cupping Carlos’s face, and then amazing happens, Jill shocking them all when she hauls Carlos in for a deep kiss that no one could believe, obviously Carlos, awestruck with his eyes widened as could be while those of Jill’s were softly closed, but when they shot open with fire, Carlos’s eyes started to wince and groan in pain through the kiss Jill intensified and ended with a parting gasp of air. When it was done, Carlos was hunched over and immediately brought a hand over his mouth where meanwhile, Jill, somewhat in a calmer state, simply turns to the baffled faces of the others and simply says.

“Now, let’s get moving.”

Jill moves on, passing by the speechless Billy, Rebecca, Sherry and Jake, all of whom turn back to Carlos still hunched over and clutching at his mouth, and it’s Billy placing a hand over Carlos’s back. “You, uh, you okay there pal?”

Carlos straightens and immediately slurs out with a finger pointing his mouth. “She freakin’ bit my tongue!”

It was all there to see, the tip of his tongue reddened and swollen, but little by little, when it all processed their minds, Billy started to chuckle, then laugh, and was it contagious as Jake started to chuckle, followed by Rebecca and Sherry also starting to giggle out, all of them laughing at the embarrassed and flushed Carlos groaning with now his own irritation, but it was these moments, this free demeanor that would separate them from all the others who survived their share of biohazard nightmares. Carlos would be the one keeping them all loose where keeping it balanced was Jill, being that kind strict and keeping them all line with her leadership skills, so it was now that the building of chemistry would start when moments later, they were treading through a corridor that was just as gleaming and clean as the dome they were imprisoned in with the only sound still being the booming from the ongoing storm outside, but in the lead was Jill and Carlos, Billy and Rebecca in the middle, and Jake and Sherry at the back.

It went on like this, no one saying a thing as they passed the first corridor to end up at what was a grand lobby that reached up many stories with the vast ceiling made of glass, able to see the towering beacon tower and the storm, but it was the shape of the glass ceiling itself that got to them all as it was the Umbrella insignia, and first to mention it was Jake.

“Guess that’s no big surprise for them to behind this.”

“There’s something else that is.” Rebecca replies back, getting everyone to look at her worried face. “There’s not a body, a bioweapon, no blood, no anything. Not even a camera, but don’t you all feel it?”

“Feel what, Rebecca?” Sherry asks, and reading Rebecca’s suspicion was Billy. “I think what Rebecca is trying to say is that it feels like we’re being watched.”

That unnerving feeling dawned on them, but Carlos being Carlos, scoffed it off. “They wouldn’t have let us breakout if that was the case, Billy.”

“Unless they were just buying time for something else by keeping us alive and maybe we just sped up things for them, Carlos. It’s how Nicholai likes to play his games as we both know best.” Jill’s guess was on the spot, but the Russian’s infamous name shocked both Sherry and Jake. First Sherry, then Jake.

“Wait, Nicholai? I thought you said he died in Raccoon City’s explosion, Jill?”

“You said the same thing, Chief. What gives? He’s the one behind this, isn’t he?”

Jill and Carlos, they exchange that look of regret, of disappointment of not having made sure Nicholai was out for the count and would never come back, but Fate, again, made the ghost of their past return, but how was a mystery and only one speculation Jill could think of and would say so herself in a long explanation with her soft eyes on the youngest pair. 

“Carlos and I… we each received a message from Nicholai about your involvements in the C-Virus crisis. How Nicholai timed your return back to us, we don’t know, but he was able to trace you two back to our homes. He knew Carlos took you in, Jake, by word spreading in mercenary cells around the globe. He paid anyone and everyone any amount, and he knew about you, Sherry, because I took you in. He found out by hacking through government files, but what we also don’t know is how Nicholai survived with the exception of what he last told me before escaping RC.”

“Which was?” Sherry pressed forward to Jill, who kept her regretful soft eyes on Sherry’s saddened ones. “He spoke of an employer… best bet is that Nicholai always had an escape clause.”

“So if the asshole failed, what was his end to uphold to this clause of his?” Jake also pressed forward, but to Carlos, and when Carlos just stared at him, then to Sherry, they knew it was them, and Rebecca would just get the answer out herself.

“Nicholai was saved so that when the time was right, he could come after you, Jake… and Sherry.”

Jake and Sherry, the former being enraged at the revelation while the latter in Sherry could barely get anything out, and it would get more difficult with Billy ending the revelation. “Nicholai stated in the messages we received is that he wasn’t the only one with an employer on the inside. It was Wesker who employed him, and Colonel Samuel Regan, now an Admiral, an old friend of mine in the Marine Corps, the one who court martialed me was employed by your father, Sherry… William Birkin.”

With that bombshell dropping, and did it ever, Jake and Sherry held onto their same emotions with Jake even more enraged and a speechless Sherry, only managing a soft, breathless, “Why… what do they want with us? Why would our fathers have hired them?”

The eldest, Carlos, Jill, Billy and Rebecca refused to reveal the last of all revelations, so when an answer didn’t come, Jake wasn’t shy to shout at both Carlos and Billy. “Fuckin’ tell us!”

Jake’s shout echoed in the grand lobby, and still with no answer, Jake was about to force it out as he reached for the calm and steady Carlos, but Sherry grabbing onto his arm stops him. “Jake, calm down!”

Just as there was Sherry grabbing onto Jake, there’s Jill stopping Carlos by grabbing his wrist and whispering up and close in his ear that she didn’t want them to hear, even shielding the side of her mouth. “Carlos, don’t. Don’t tell them. Not now. We agreed on this.”

Carlos, smiling at the fire in Jake’s eyes, just look back at Jill’s eyes and not whispering as she did. “They’re gonna find out anyways. Might as well tell them now and hear it from us and get it over with.”

Carlos didn’t cut any corners as all would hear him say, “I can see it. We all can. You love each other, right?”

Jake and Sherry were put on the spot, Sherry looking down with a blush so heavy that even she couldn’t hide it from Jill and Rebecca, but when it came to Jake, yes, he remained strongly looking at Carlos. “What does that have to do anything?”

“Everything, because if you have a baby, boy or girl, it will change the world. For the good or bad, we don’t know, but you two were always part of Wesker’s last plan… his and Birkin’s grandchild.” Carlos said the revelation of all revelations like it was nothing, but oh, was it something to Jake and Sherry.

Jake turns his glaring look at Sherry where Sherry kept looking down and clutching at her stomach where one day, their child would indeed reside as their love would grow true, but now was Jake glaring back at the calm Carlos. “So my old man… you saying he knew about me all along? Didn’t help my mom out, is that it?”

“Yeah, that’s it… I’m sorry, Jake.” Carlos sincerely said, and more. “I know what else you’re thinking. If Jill and I finished off Nicholai, we wouldn’t be in this position, but you and Sherry, don’t let it affect you. Me and Jill, we’ll make sure of that.”

Jake understood and never doubted Carlos, but it was through Jill, the one who doubted, smiling somberly at him in what was the first sign of trusting Jake, a smile that grows stronger when Jill gives it to Sherry, finally looking up and straight at Jill’s smile for herself and could see the love they held for each other in their eyes since, yeah, Carlos, Billy and Rebecca were all smiles, but it was Jill speaking for them all.

“You’ll both be okay.”

Such an endearing moment, all falling silent, only to be switched by a menacing cackle that was all too familiar to Carlos’ and Jill’s ears, the laughter booming throughout the grand lobby that when it settled, that Russian accent followed, and it is Nicholai Ginovaef, the Silver Wolf himself, making his introduction, but nowhere to be seen as they all look around and listen.

“Unarmed, but ever optimistic! I should not be surprised, should I, old comrade?”

It was directed, of course, at Carlos, and he takes it as a compliment, shouting back. “Well, you know me! Always had rubble in my brain that needed clearing like someone always said, like another comrade you betrayed!”

“Ah, yes,” Nicholai’s voice calmed, but not without a sneer. “Mikhail, my old comrade, but he was too idealistic, too much of a compassionate soldier. It is why Vladimir never made him a monitor. Viktor was a fool.”

“He was twice the solder you would ever be, you shitbird!!” This was Jill, and Carlos had to chuckle. “Nice one, Supercop. Old’tank would’ve loved hearing that.”

Jill also had to grin back in knowing they couldn’t see him, they knew got underneath Nicholai’s skin by mentioning Mikhail’s favorite curse, and there was nothing, no reply from Nicholai, but from one familiar to Billy and even Rebecca, that would shock Billy himself, the voice of Samuel Regan. “Longtime, no see, fellow American brother, but how have you’ve been, Dollface?”

All eyes shot to Rebecca with hers looking into Billy’s angry ones and could only listen to her plea. “It’s not what you think.”

“The hell it’s not.” Billy believed, but Samuel went on, antagonizing. “Oh, she didn’t tell you? We’ve been dating for a year now. Hugging and even kissing. Tell him, Rebecca, and end the torment.”

Billy’s belief was fading with the seconds that passed by without Rebecca saying a word, only managing, “I was using Regan to get your name cleared, Billy… he was behind that botched mission of yours in Africa.”

For those watching, Jill, Carlos, Jake, and Sherry, they were all quiet, as expected, but sorrowfully watching Billy’s time, taking in his own revelation as he paced off to the side, rubbing at his face and sliding it through his hair in disbelief that the one and only woman he loved had dated the one he considered a brother in the Marines, only to betray him and have him sentenced to death, so when Rebecca approaches Billy, he stops his pacing and backs away, a finger directed at her that hurt Rebecca than any wound she suffered.

“You do this now?” Billy growled. “You do this now, Rebecca? When all the time I was trying to clear my name?”

“I was trying to do it myself because I wanted you back!”

“Doing it by getting in bed with the one person who ordered me to have me killed!”

“It was nothing like that, Billy! There was never anything between me and Sammy!”

“Sammy, huh.” Billy chuckled out, sarcastically and shaking his head as it is Samuel rubbing it in. “Remember that nickname you had for me, old friend? Billy and Sammy. The Few, The Proud, The Marines. Well, yes, Rebecca also carried it on, as I did with your precious Dollface.”

Billy and Rebecca, they couldn’t be any alone in their own world as they were in with Billy’s eyes burning and Rebecca’s burning, but softly, so now the time came, to rebuild what was lost in those 18 years as three doors swoosh open within the lobby. One to the right, one to the left, and one to the middle, an evident test if there was any, as would say Nicholai.

“Three paths. All leading to one. Take your pick.”

Still unarmed, they had no other reason to push forward, and no hesitating was Carlos, heading off to the left where he stops and calls out to Rebecca, knowing at this time, she and Billy needed their time apart, and hopefully, Jill would read the same, and she does so, heading off to the right.

“Follow me, Billy.”

“Come on, Rebecca.”

Billy and Rebecca look at their partners, momentarily, to say that the least, till looking back at each other, somberly, but Billy heads on to join Jill and with much weight on her shoulders, she heads on to join Carlos, and this left Jake and Sherry, both staring at the middle path, dark as ever while their young minds still floundered over the revelation of a baby in the future, but with a hand coming over Sherry’s wrist, she looks at Jake, confidently smiling.

“They’ll be fine, and no asking fee this time. Free of charge, Supergirl.”

Sherry, it takes a second, but a heartfelt giggle burst out. “Yeah. Let’s go, Superboy.”

Jake does burst out a chuckle, and off they went, and for the three pairs, the ones that would ignite a crisis, but save it in the many distant years, this was just the beginning…


	10. Pushing Forward

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a LONG chapter. Holidays kept me busy so I decided to combined a few later chapters into this one bunch. Hope you all enjoy and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

“Great, a safe room.”

Carlos began with Rebecca pacing behind him a few feet and was silent since parting from the others, and the safe room was the same as the gleaming, cleaned corridors with still no sign of foul play. Better yet, though suspiciousness aside, were racks of firearms as Carlos picks up his favorite CQBR and picking up a few grenades that followed with a familiar line. “If this is some trap, don’t mind the help, so come to papa.”

Carlos took the grenades and cocks back on the rifle whereas Rebecca was still deep in her own thoughts as to how Billy reacted to the news of her dating the one who had him sentenced to death and didn’t believe her true intentions that it was all to clear his name, to find any evidence, using Regan when after she found out that he was the officer who handed the execution. There was history between them that she had to explore and never felt right about doing what she did, going to those measures, all those kisses and dates that meant nothing to her as it was all for Billy, hence, why she was so silent and saddened, and also wondering if she could ever make up for it, let alone Billy forgiving her even if she did clear his name, but the other closest to Billy other than her would reassure Rebecca otherwise.

It starts when she bumps into Carlos.

“Ah!” Rebecca staggers a bit, but keeps her footing and looks up at Carlos sending her a suspicious look, to which the doctor would timidly apologize. “Um, sorry, sorry.”

“Watch where you’re going.” Carlos sternly said, making Rebecca more timid and guilt-ridden, but when Carlos rears his impish grin, all was fine. “Had you there for a sec, didn’t I?”

He did, and again, despite their situation, Carlos made light of it and got Rebecca to sweetly giggle an embarrassed one. “Yes, you did.”

“Good, but hey, I know what’s going through your mind. Don’t start thinking Billy hates you or anything.” Carlos read her mind right, and Rebecca wouldn’t deny it, the sadness and guilt returning, sitting down on the storage and taking the 909 she rested on her lap, thinking of Billy and Billy only. 

“I did it all for him, you know? Things Sammy would say about Billy. From the first day I met him, I wondered why he hated Billy so much. I just wanted to get close enough to get to his files, but they contained nothing on Billy or his operation in Africa.”

“So you were doing a little detective work like Supercop, yeah?”

“Yes. Exactly like how Jill puts it,” Rebecca giggles, which doesn’t last long, “But he hid tracks. I know he did when I told him that one of the operations I had in STARS was to escort a Second Lieutenant in the Marines for execution, and he snapped, all jealous. He said Billy deserved it, and even called him a—

“A traitor.” Carlos’s interruption was right as could as be that Rebecca softly gasped at Carlos, showing a smile, but did not last long as he sat down besides Rebecca and heaving a sigh, clicking on the safety of the rifle and settling it between his legs and reclining it against his chest, both looking down as Rebecca’s hears him clear up the cloudy history between the two Marines. 

“I know I shouldn’t be telling you this. It should be Billy, but Billy told me the same about Regan. It was just before the mission in Africa. Regan was there to see him off and called him a traitor. Billy didn’t think much of it. Just thought it was just out of jealousy like you said.”

“But did he ever say why, Carlos?” Rebecca looks at the side of Carlos’s face, seeing a glimpse of a smile, but a sad one as he doesn’t look back. 

“Rank doesn’t mean a thing in our profession. Regan was a Colonel, higher than Billy being a Lieutenant, but Regan was appointed to be in charge of a base camp where Billy got out there to fight. It’s what Regan wanted. He didn’t want to be babysitting some base. He wanted to fight, and that’s where the jealousy started. He wanted Billy dead, so he gave this botched mission, framing up Billy for those civilians that were killed.”

Hearing the story, Rebecca’s whisper would be right on tone. “So it wasn’t just Wesker after all. The government knew Wesker would go after Sherry. Which is why Birkin went to Sammy because of his military background and was able to keep an eye on as long as Sherry was in the government’s custody till—

“Till Wesker was dust, yeah, and now Regan and Nicholai are working together.” Carlos went on with the conspiracy with Rebecca still looking at his smile that dwindled. “Gotta give it to them. The two powerhouses. The US and Russia. Who knows what they’re planning. Starting a war. Instigating things. It’s already weird enough that they haven’t responded to us breaking out and even giving us weapons, but it’s Jake and Sherry I’m worried about.”

“If they have a child.” Now it was Rebecca guessing right, and Carlos chuckles, but finally looks back at Rebecca. “Yeah… but hey, we’ll deal with it down the road. Things will be okay, Super-Doc.”

Did Rebecca ever light up at her new nickname, giggling while Carlos got up and made for the door. “Now let’s get going, shall we?”

The automated door swooshes open for Carlos, but one more thing was still left unanswered, and that is when he stops to Rebecca asking, softly again. “You and Jill.”

Carlos doesn’t turn, just placing a hand against the side of the door and lowering his head. “What about me and Supercop?”

Rebecca stands, gazing softly into Carlos’s back. “What you did for her in RC… I just wanted to say thank you myself for being there for Jill, and to let you know that you never left her mind.”

Another compliment for his best achievement, and another humble chuckle Carlos delivers without still looking back. “Redfield would’ve done the same, now let’s go.”

Rebecca frowned because like Barry before her all those years ago, she too could feel it, could hear the sense of jealousy in Carlos that Jill was everything to him, but he didn’t let it get to him, he wasn’t a sore loser, but a respectful one as all he wanted was for Jill, to this very day, was for Jill to be happy, even if it wasn’t with him, so he just walked out, missing Rebecca’s whisper.

“If only you knew that it was you who Jill loved all these years, Carlos…”

\--

“Did you see the way he fucking kissed her?!” 

Quite the reversal it was with those words from Jill, the spotlight switching onto Jill and Billy, and it began with Jill, in so much denial of her heart that Carlos still entirely occupied, and Billy saw it as both sat in their own safe room with Jill pacing left and right, unloading the clip and putting it back in, rinse and repeat as what the annoyed BSAA captain was doing where meanwhile, Billy was just slouching against the corner, an arm on his raised knee, but true to his attitude that reflected Carlos, he too was showing a cocky grin.

“Don’t think too much of it, Valentine.” Billy said as he was going over his M16 rifle that was swiftly kicked away by an angry Jill glaring down at him, and he gives a weary look right back up at her. “Carlos is like that. I know him. He got us out, right? Sometimes we have to do things we don’t like just to survive.”

“Try telling that to your old soldier teammates you killed and innocent villagers you gunned down in Africa!” Jill’s growl, it was stomached, kept low, full of regret as she knew it was a hit below the belt to Billy, but meant it all the same, and Billy stood, towering over Jill who didn’t back down or flinch from the much taller excommunicated Marine being his composed self.

“Believe what you want about me. The only reason that jab hurts is because you’re like a sister to Rebecca, and I know I would need all your trust to even get near her, but when it comes to Carlos, yeah, he could be a major pain in the ass, but he’s like a brother to me and if there’s anything you should believe me on, it’s Carlos. That kiss was nothing to him. There’s only been one woman since you two escaped Raccoon City.”

That update on Carlos’s love life affected Jill to finally back down with much sadness, but still looking up at Billy. “So there is someone else.”

Jill couldn’t be anymore mistaken and would be proven wrong by Billy, gathering his rifle off the floor and grinning back at Jill. “Yeah. He told me about some woman who wasn’t like anybody else. It’s you, always has been.”

Those words Jill never heard, words that Carlos told his old friend Tyrell were now echoed by Billy, and when hearing them, Jill slumped down onto the storage box. From that action alone, Billy got the gist of it, that it was yet another revelation when all this time, she expected Carlos to not only move on, but to have dated one, two, heck, even a dozen being the charming womanizer he was, and every time she did think of it, truth be told here, Jill got to a sad jealousy, but jealousy nevertheless, and it was so easy for Billy to read it all over Jill’s slumped posture and see her remove her own cap to let those pale blonde bangs flow out. Billy never needed words to know that Carlos was always on her mind just like she was on Carlos’s, but needing words or not, Jill does speak after a saddened scoff and a shake of the head.

“It’s funny looking back on it… of all the men I worked with throughout my career, no one came close. I worked with Chris for almost two decades now. Parker and Josh for a few operations here and there. It was all professional, but with Carlos, in just three nights, Carlos changed everything… I never forgot about him. Hell… I couldn’t even if I tried. He’s there… always will be there for as long as I live.”

“So what of the love drama?” Billy did not shy back, nor did Jill, a huff with a soft, defeated smile while now looking back up at Billy. “Let’s just say he never gave us a chance, but I understood why he couldn’t stay.”

“So you did love him.”

“Yeah… I did.”

Jill smiles, a pure one that Billy smiled down at her, both knowing there was still that opportunity, that chance to regain the what-could’ve-been love if Carlos had not left, and they also knew that now was not the time for it, so Billy heads for the door, but like Carlos stopped to Rebecca’s call out, it’s Billy stopping to Jill’s. “You and Rebecca.”

Also like Carlos, Billy doesn’t make the turn. “What about me and Dollface?”

“What she said was true. Rebecca was only trying to find any evidence to clear you. She never slept with him. Yes, they kissed occasionally, but I’m willing to put my trust in you as long as you believe Rebecca because it hurt her as much as it hurts you doing what she did. She never enjoyed any of it. Okay, Coen?”

Billy, his heart still straining from Rebecca dating the one who betrayed, the one he used to call his best friend, had loosen with Jill’s words. “Okay… All right, Valentine.”

Billy takes another step, but is stopped again. “Jill… just call me Jill, and I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I was out of line.”

Still not turning, Billy chuckles. “Don’t worry about it. We’re both soldiers. As long as you call me Billy and not Super-Grunt, then we’re all good.”

“Consider it done, Billy.”

If Carlos and Rebecca were in the room, they would’ve laughed along as Jill and Billy were doing at this moment, so with Jill slipping her cap back on, they move forward as this now left the young pair in the spotlight 

\--

“Well, well,” Jake lets out that impressed whistle. “Pretty roomy place.”

It wasn’t the luxury of a safe room like the others as their middle path took them to a massive area where there was catwalk to the west and one to the east while at the center was circular platform with a lone terminal in front of a towering elevator reaching to the top, the communications tower. Sherry takes the initiative, sprinting on ahead to the terminal, getting Jake to blink out of his observation of the area and join up with her in time to catch Sherry’s wrist from pressing a key on the terminal where on the screen was the screensaver of the Umbrella insignia spinning.

“Whoa, whoa, hold on there, Supergirl. Sure you wanna do that?”

“No, I’m not, so you want to do it?”

Jake remembers back to his first mission with Carlos and Billy, where he pushed the big red button that triggered out a horde of Hunters, so embarrassed, he lets Sherry take control, releasing her hand. “Uh, yeah, you go on ahead. Super-Chief rather have it be you than me, and don’t ask why.”

Sherry smiles victoriously and presses one key to get the screensaver to stop. What displays next is the usual login screen, showing the ID and the Password entries. It was to their any guess as to what the codes could be, but suddenly Nicholai’s voice booms throughout the area, getting them to look up and about.

“The elevator is all yours to take, but if you wish to see the truth of your fathers, here’s a tip for you two young ones. The ID is your first name, young Birkin. The password is your surname, young Jake, however, which one might that be? Muller or Wesker? A lone failed attempt will disable the terminal and you will never find out. Whichever you decide, the path is free. That is all.”

It was a hint as much as it was the solution itself that just further raised the suspicion of Nicholai leading them into his game, toying with all of them as if they were chess pieces on his chessboard, so Sherry makes a plea of a suggestion, more frightened than worried as to what they will discover. “Let’s just take the elevator, Jake.”

She grabs his hand and moves for the elevator, but not two steps in, Sherry stops the moment Jake gently pulls her back close to him. “I gotta see this, Sherry. We both have to. You know that.”

Sherry knew, but was afraid of the outcome, and it wasn’t for her sake, but for Jake’s sake, so comes another soft plea. “Fine, just please, whatever we see, promise me that you won’t let it get the best of you and—

“Hey,” A gentle cutoff from Jake, confidently smiling with hands coming over her shoulders. “Don’t you worry about me, but all right, I promise.”

Sherry fed off the confidence, feeling, knowing Jake will stay true and keep calm, so with that, Jake turns to the terminal and enters her name in the ID entry: SHERRY, then his last name for the Password: MUL—

“No…that ain’t it.” Jake’s cutoff is at himself, and it hurts Sherry to watch him go with his father’s infamous surname rather than his loving mother, but Jake types it in, and it would hurt Sherry even more for it was the correct entry and hated seeing it with much passion when one day she may, she hoped to become Sherry Muller and not what followed on the screen.

ID: SHERRY.  
PASSWORD: WESKER.

Before he presses the Enter key, Jake heaves a sigh. “Well, moment of truth.”

Jake presses the key, and the moment of truth did arrive, for the both of them as the terminal displayed ‘ACCESS GRANTED’, and Sherry wasn’t as enthusiastic as Jake, who sharply chuckled. “Thought I didn’t see that comin’, did ya, you crazy Russian bastard. Never knowing I would pick my old man’s name.”

Once again, Sherry wasn’t happy at all where this was going, which would only get worse because what pops up is a recording beginning with both the date and the location, 

‘SEPTEMBER, 22nd, 1998.’  
‘NEST: Dr. William Birkin’s Office.’

Sherry, as much as she didn’t want to watch, did so, and helping her keep strong was Jake grabbing her hand, still smiling confidently. “It’ll be fine. I’m right here with ya.”

Took much strength to even smile, but Sherry manages, entwining her fingers with his into a delicate tight fist, and together, they look to the screen once the recording begins, and it commences with the view coming from a surveillance camera in a corner of the office’s ceiling. What was recorded is her father, William Birkin, sitting at his desk with folded hands against his forehead and with eyes closed as he was deep in thought of what was currently happening to the city outside of the NEST and his decision to betray Umbrella along with Wesker. Above all, however, on his mind was his daughter and what would come of her Fate if the government indeed discovers he was responsible for what would be the Raccoon City incident, so his option to ensure she would be looked after is who broke Birkin out of his deep thinking.

“Are you still sure you want to go through with this?” Assured the US Marine Colonel, Samuel Regan, coming into the camera’s view as he stood before Birkin’s desk, donning the traditional navy blue with red trimming uniform of the Marines while holding the white cap against his hip, exposing his hair that was exactly in the same style as Billy’s with the exception being the color as Regan’s was a pure white and eyes of a shining green.

He could’ve passed off as Billy’s elder brother, but his appearance isn’t what Jake and Sherry were focused on, but it was the discussion taking place as Birkin opens his eyes at the Colonel and seeing no hesitation whatsoever within him or in Birkin’s voice. “Sure than ever. Umbrella will come any day now to steal my work.”

“I was not referring to that, I was referring to your daughter. Do you still want her to be a child of the state rather than be with relatives or another family?”

Now there was hesitation in Birkin, looking down to his desk where it was a doodle little Sherry drew, her in the middle holding her parents’ hands. After was no more hesitation from Birkin. “There are no relatives, and I want no other family getting custody of Sherry. Besides, Umbrella will just hunt them down if I fail. Only place she’ll be fine is with the state, away from anything that can harm her, away from Umbrella.”

“Even from Wesker?”

“Especially him.”

“But aren’t you two working together and—

“Just do it, Samuel!” Birkin snapped, his hands slamming over the desk after erupting from his chair, but he regains himself, his burning glare softening in what would be the last time. “I apologize. I’m not one to ask for favors, though this is the one I need and you are the only one who could provide that. Get the government to take Sherry and keep an eye on her as much as you can until Wesker is dead. Don’t let the government release her till that happens. Can you do this?”

Regan is quick to accept, and Jake and Sherry will now know why. “Hey, I’m a man of my word. You helped me get rid of Coen when the Ecliptic Express derailed. You and Wesker provoking Marcus did just that like you said it would and you got ahold of his research. We both won that night, so it’s me who should be paying back the favor twice over. I’ll keep an eye on Sherry and make sure Wesker doesn’t get close.”

The truth was out regarding how Birkin was Regan’s employer as Billy was the pawn, which just made Sherry feel even worse to find out that it was her father to blame for how it all turned out between Billy and Rebecca, both unable to see each for those 18 years, and Sherry glances down, but Jake is quick to bring Sherry back from her sadness

“Hey, Sherry, there’s more.”

Just when she thought the recording would end there, it didn’t. Regan slipped on his cap and left the office where a few seconds later, it’s her mother stepping inside, Annette Birkin. She gives a look back, and just before the automated door swooshes close, she saw Regan pass the corner of the corridor. When the automated door does close, Annette, focuses back on her husband.

“Who was that man just now, William?”

“No one important.” Birkin lied.

Annette, wanting so much to press the issue, does not, only walking around the desk and standing behind her with hands coming upon his shoulders as she joined him in looking down at the doodle their daughter drew, getting Annette to also show the last signs of a loving mother. “Do you recall when she showed us that drawing?”

Like Annette, this will be the last time William shows the last signs of a loving father. “A bright, sunny picnic at the park on Father’s Day. And all I asked for was a hug.”

The husband chuckles out with so much while just as much was his wife wrapping her arms around his neck and bending down to giggle into his neck, but after their laughter dies down, they revert to their plan that awaited the city and their daughter as William asks. “Are you sure you’ll still with me, Annette? You can take Sherry and leave while there’s still time to do so before things get worse.”

When William asks this, he made that sharp turn of the neck and is already greeted with her closeup smile, a broken one as she wouldn’t turn back from his decision to die with him if need be. “Always have. Always still will be with you.”

“And what of Sherry? Did you give her the locket? Did you place the vaccine insi—

“Shh,” Annette brought a finger over William’s lips, and with a tear falling from her eyes, she still went on. “Everything is ok. She has the locket and if things do get worse in the city, I’ll take her to the precinct. She’ll be safe there. After all, she’s a survivor. Remember how we couldn’t find her at all during those Hide-and-Seek games?”

William, the little bit of the father he had in him, laughed so wholeheartedly just like the little that was left of Annette, and the recording ended there.

Returning back to Jake and Sherry, it’s Jake already knowing what to expect just by hearing the sniffles Yes, it was Sherry sobbing, but never letting go of his hand as she held on ever tighter, staying strong, but just before Jake was about to comfort her, it would be his time, the truth coming out as the screen was loading the next recording with the details reading out.

‘MARCH, 18th, 2009.’  
‘TRICELL HEADQUARTERS: Albert Wesker’s Lab.’

“That month… when Redfield killed off my old man.” Jake said at a loss when he shouldn’t be, but he was because of the date, just months prior to his father’s death and when Jake left Eastern Europe, so before the recording begins, there is Sherry beginning to convince Jake to not watch.

“I don’t like this. Let’s go, Jake.”

“Wha?” Jake looks down into those blue eyes of Sherry’s, full of tears where one had yet to shed, but it was that nervous smile and still holding on dearly to not just one hand, but now both of Jake’s. “Let’s just go, ok? Come on. Let’s get going. We’ve seen enough.”

Sherry makes a tug of both his hands, but Jake doesn’t budge, his gaze hardening. “You mean you’ve seen enough. Now it’s my turn.”

“But the past doesn’t matter.” Sherry began with a hurtful giggle, “We go forward and start our own life, start our own memories, so please, let’s go. Please, Jake.”

Sherry’s plea would do nothing to convince Jake for after she makes another tug of his hands, Jake still doesn’t budge, and this happens over and over again with Sherry tugging harder and harder, but to no avail, Jake releases her hands, causing Sherry to hurl back and fall on the ground with a yelp. Sherry gathers herself just to sit up and was sad to say the least to be staring up at Jake’s still-hardened eyes, but behind them, there was that feeling of remorse of having did what he’d done, wanting to reach down to her, but didn’t. The only thing Jake does was turn back to the terminal, pressing a lone key, and the recording begins with Jake taking all his power to ignore Sherry’s sobbing as she stayed on the ground, hugging her knees that she buried her face against, but her ears would hear every word that commenced with not Wesker, but with Nicholai’s in that thick Russian accent.

“I do still find it hard to believe you chose to keep her alive rather than getting rid of the bleeding heart she was.”

Sherry, despite not wanting to look, she peers above her knees that she kept close, and through her blurry vision, she watched, and it was Nicholai, in the long military uniform that resembled that of his former boss and one that Wesker himself could not stand in Sergei Vladimir. There was hardly a change in Nicholai’s physical appearance as his short silver hair remained and his blue eyes just as cold as his heart. As for Nicholai himself, he was standing in front of a lone pod that illuminated Wesker’s dark lab void of any light, but Sherry, especially Jake, could make it all out where despite his midnight trenchcoat, both young hearts got a good view of Wesker appearing, walking in that patient stride into the camera’s view to stand alongside Nicholai ahead of the pod where there she was, incased for three years… Jill.

Wesker would start off with a sharp sneer. “Killing Valentine, killing Jill would’ve just been meaningless. The discovery of knowing she could be brought back to life was not. This will only make things between Chris and I more, how should I put it? Interesting.”

“And just how is it you managed to do such a thing? How did you do it?”

“Though that old comrade of yours got in the way with providing Jill the vaccine, he only made the virus dormant.”

Nicholai wasn’t one to be easily shocked, but he was. “Old comrade? You mean—

“Oliveira, yes,” Wesker sneered the name as he adjusted his shades before looking to Nicholai’s shocked face for himself, “Do not worry, Oliveira’s time will come. I have something in store especially for him, but the irony, is it not, Nicholai? I owe it all to Oliveira as much as I do for Vladimir sending Umbrella to buy his freedom. I was able to revive Jill through Oliveira’s efforts and now here we are. Through Oliveira, I can torment Redfield even more, both men whom I’m sure she loves, and the rest is history.”

Nicholai was pleased, but the shock was still there, one that he shook off. “Then why have you asked for this meeting other than that of Valentine.”

“My plan, Nicholai.”

The Russian understood from those words alone, and though he admired it, Nicholai still had his doubts as his chuckle of a sadistic, yet, disbelief described. “Saturation of the world, yes? The Uroboros warheads. It will be difficult with Redfield and his BSAA growing stronger by the day. Just how would you go about this, friend?”

“It’s no matter you should be concerned of, but there is one should I fail.”

“And that is?”

Wesker pauses here, slipping off his shades, and this is where it all starts for Jake when he hears his father say these very words, and they are…

“There is a woman in Serbia by the name of Jana Muller who has a son. The boy is becoming something unimaginable, something out of this world. He has been working with mercenaries, gangs, lowlifes, call it what you like, but I see great potential within him. I want you to watch him from a distance. He will make me proud one day.”

“And of the mother?” Nicholai cuts in, and the uncaring, unsympathetic, the heartless of a sneer from his own father is what would Jake set off, but not yet, not yet as he watched his father slide his shades back on. “I have already taken care of the mother. She is slowly dying to a painless death. Surgeries won’t matter.”

Silence follows as Sherry did with her recording where Jake also expected it to end, but it didn’t, it only got worse when one Excella Gionne entered, her heels sounding through the quiet lab before stopping in front of Wesker with a seductive grin and trailing a finger across Wesker’s jawline. “It is about time we leave for Africa, my dear. The plane is waiting.”

When Excella was about to come in for a kiss with Wesker not even flinching to her lips, the recording ends at the moment when Excella kissed him, and the world, what was left of it left Jake as it had when he lost his mother, but the little bit remained, and that was Sherry, keeping it alive.

“Jake…”

When he hears his name, it was combined with both his mom’s and also Sherry’s. “Jake, look at me.”

Jake, he began to slouch over the terminal, his head sunk and his hands gripping onto the panel that he just wanted to crush, but doesn’t. Instead, he sends a devastating fist into the screen. “FUCK YOU!!”

Sparks fly, his knuckles bled, and the more Sherry goes on, the more he hears his mother in her voice. “Jake, please, look at me!”

Jake does so, fighting against all the hate building in his heart, but for the first time, there was Sherry seeing it for herself. She was standing right next to him, looking into those eyes that were switching from his mother’s lovely blue to his father’s madness red, but it was the expression he had, he was lost, as if Jake was torn in two, both shades switching back and forth, an evident sign of Jake trying to fight off the blood of his father’s, so when it stops on his mother’s blue, Jake regains his senses, but quickly looks away. Sherry cups his face and turns it right back at her ever so distraught, another reason being how Jake brushes her off and walks a few steps away, his back to her and clutching at the sides of his head. 

“Jake? Jake, look at me.”

He doesn’t.

“Look at me, Jake!!”

As before, hearing those words that was all of his mother’s voice and not Sherry’s, the different side of Jake awoke, turning back and towering over the saddened Sherry, staring up into those red feline hues as Jake spoke in a grim voice, like his father’s, but resided was his cockiness, an evil one. “You want me to look, Supergirl? Yeah, here I am, right? I’m looking. What about you? What are you looking at, huh?”

Frightened, crushed of grief with sadness already there, it just grew when it dawned on Sherry that she was doing something she never thought she would be doing in a million years, and that was slowly retreating back from Jake, and every step hurts as it was visible in the aching of her voice. “I’m… yes, I’m looking.”

“And?” Jake slowly advances, his arms slightly spreading out with an evil grin. “Then let’s hear it. What do you see?”

“I see,” Sherry ached out again just like she kept retreating, and this is how it went on with Jake continuing forward with Sherry continuing on the emotional string of exchanges. “I see a young man who’s suffered a lot as a boy, but saved billions with his blood.”

“And should I be proud of it?”

“I am. Your mother is too.”

“But what if I want more? What if I could, what if I want more? Enough power to have saved my mother. Enough to just take this whole fucked up world and make it mine?”

“Then I would make you choose?”

“Between what?”

“Not what… but whom.”

“And what might that be?”

“Me or the world because I wouldn’t want to live in that world where you’re deciding everything when all I want is you… just us… because I’d rather die, Jake, than to see you become like your father!”

Sherry no longer retreated with the cry in Jake’s face, a confession at its truest, but in the state he was in, he wouldn’t recollect it. As of now, however, is Jake stopping, the brimming red of his eyes gradually growing dimmer and mixed with a faint glimpse of blue, a sign that Sherry’s words reached him, but just when Sherry thought she did, Jake’s eyes burned ever a brighter red which was sadly accompanied by the violent grip on Sherry’s arm that had her crying out in sharp pain that led to those tears finally leaking down her cheeks that she couldn’t hold back any longer for there’s Jake, fiercely hauling her in and lowly growling back down in her face.

“We’re going to make this world ours whether you like it or not.”

No other stab to Sherry’s heart other than her parents’ deaths hurt more than Jake’s evil declaration, and such a moment of flaring emotions would just flare even higher when suddenly Carlos and Jill shouted out.

“Jake!”

“Sherry!”

Both of them, Jake and Sherry, look past one another where on Jake’s end, he sees Carlos and Rebecca appearing from the eastern elevator, both breathing and sweating profusely as they bore minor wounds, and it was the same on Sherry’s end, seeing Jill and Billy appearing from the western elevator with minor wounds of their own, breathing and sweating just as hard. The sight of Jake, though, of having Sherry’s arm tightly in his hand was something that didn’t sit well with her sister figures as Jake would glare to Rebecca aiming her 909, then glaring behind him at Jill doing the same with her own 909, but before they could shoot, Carlos swipes down Rebecca’s hands down as Billy did the same to Jill, stunning both women who just blinked in all their fathom to watch Carlos and Billy rush at the grinning Jake, who released Sherry with a sharp throw to the ground.

“Ah!!” Sherry hits the ground violently and is quick to clutch her arm that Jake had grabbed, and just as quick were Jill and Rebecca at her side with Rebecca frantically checking her over and asking. “Sherry, are you okay?!”

Emotionally, no. Sherry was physically ok, but she still doesn’t answer back, so it’s now Jill asking. “Sherry? Sherry, are you okay? Look at us.”

Sherry doesn’t do so, but keeping her eyes ahead at the sight she was looking, and would tell them to do the same. “Look… look at them.”

Jill and Rebecca do look and observe, and they stunned, watching what it took to calm Jake, as if it was taming a wild beast with both Carlos and Billy trying, evading Jake’s swift punches and kicks that would been devastating, but it was in that that had the women watching in awe. They all wondered, better yet, they knew this wasn’t the first time Jake had lost control of himself as Carlos and Billy knew his every move, evading every attack without attacking back themselves and waiting for the opening to arrive, and it did when Jake missed a punch aimed at Carlos’s face that both he and Billy countered by flipping Jake over their shoulders and land hard on his stomach. This doesn’t faze Jake at the least, but as he tries to get up, he is held down by both his brother figures.

Carlos locks Jake’s left arm behind his back and Billy locks Jake’s right arm also behind his back with both having a knee over the back of Jake’s shoulders, such a sight troubling Jill, Rebecca and most of all, Sherry.

“You gonna cool it, Jake, or am I gonna have to pop off your shoulder like last time?!” Carlos shouted.

Jake’s response is a growl, a loud one as he mustered all his strength to get up, which he almost did and which he surprised Jill, Rebecca and Sherry once more, but Jake is slammed back down when Billy applies more strength. “Jake, stop fighting back! Get your mind straight! We’ve been through this before! Now stop it, little bro!”

Jake’s fiery anger doesn’t let up, but when the only thing he could do was look up with his chin against the ground, what he sees is a mad Jill and a shocked Rebecca at Sherry’s side, but it was Sherry herself, the way she was looking back at him with so much fear that finally, Jake’s eyes revert back to his mother’s blue, no longer fighting back, and with it was Carlos and Billy getting off of him with a heave of a deep breath while Jake slowly gathers up to his knees, looking to Billy, then to Carlos, and Jake asks a question that he already knew the answer to, but still asked either way.

“I… I blacked out again, didn’t I, guys?”

“What do you think?” Carlos breathes out and brushes off the sweat from his forehead.

Jake, feeling the worse, simply looks down. “It’s been getting worse. It’s been happening more often.”

“And you did well, young Wesker!”

Everyone, all of them reacted to Nicholai’s voice booming out again through the area, all of them looking up and listening to his sadistic sneer. “You should be proud. Now, let us continue. The central elevator is waiting, so am I with a big surprise for my old comrade. I do hope you are ready, friend.”

As exhausted as Carlos was, he got onto his feet and shouted upwards. “Ready as ever, you fuck!”

Nothing from Nicholai, and with it was the grand central elevator swooshing open along with all their emotions dying down. All were back on their feet and gathering just outside the elevator, but neither one stepped inside just yet as the men stood to the right and the women to the left. Jake, a guilty one, would be the first to react, and what was a glimpse of the past when Leon had reached for Sherry only for Jake to brush him away, it was now Jake being brushed away by Jill.

“Sherry, I’m—

“Don’t you even fuckin’ dare.” Jill quietly threatened. “Not now.”

Jake understood and took it. Even did Carlos and Billy, both knowing they couldn’t defend Jake for what he done, so Jill with a glare to Carlos, she would advise Rebecca. “Get Sherry inside and keep her close to you and away from Jake. I’ll be with you in a bit.”

“Ok.” Rebecca softly said with an arm around Sherry’s shoulders. “Come on, Sherry.”

She did, her head down and clutching at her arm the entire time Sherry passed by Jake, watching Rebecca lead Sherry inside the elevator, and without a look back from Sherry, it just beats up Jake even more, but Carlos would also take Jill’s route, glaring right back at her and advising Billy. “Get Jake in there and keep his ass away from Sherry.”

“You got it,” Billy grabs onto Jake’s wrist, and he complies, not argument, just following Billy into the elevator when it was done, it was just Carlos and Jill glaring at each other, and Jill starts off the chat both tried to keep quiet, and do manage.

“Nothing like his old man, you said, hm?”

“I should’ve told you.” Carlos began with an apologetic air to him. “Jill, the kid suffers. He has these breakdowns.”

“Oh, I’m sure he does because from what I saw just now, it seems this wasn’t the first case you had to deal with.”

“Jill, look, just… I’ll handle Jake.”

Not satisfied, Jill still agrees, stepping up even closer with arms sternly folded. “Deal, but get this straight. If he touches Sherry like that ever again, it’s over.”

Carlos did not contest Jill’s ultimatum, watching her go off and join the others inside the elevator. Carlos has to take a deep sigh before heading on himself, not liking where this was all going, all of them falling into Nicholai’s mind games, and it would be Carlos’s turn because after one step in, he hears a faint woman’s whisper behind him, and it was no ordinary one as it shouted directly in his ear with distant gunfire in the background combined with screams of families dying…

“Run, Carlos! Corre!”

Carlos, fast as he could, turns around with his rifle aimed, finding nothing, but was he ever breathing to the woman’s voice and the gunfire, a voice so familiar that he refused to believe it, as said in his whispers to himself. “No… no, no, Nicholai is just fuckin with you, fuckin with your head…she was paralyzed… she’s dead. She’s been dead, she’s—

“Carlos?”

Carlos does the same, reversing back with his rifle aimed at Jill, who doesn’t flinch, knowing he would never shoot her, but in the back of her mind, and heart, was she ever worried, but doesn’t show it, for both their sake as all she does was lower the end of his rifle.

“Carlos, are you okay?”

“Ye-Yeah, I’m… I’m good. Let’s just… let’s just get the hell outta here.”

The fashion Carlos walked past her, the feeling she felt in knowing something was bothering him just made Jill uneasy and undoubtedly more worried for even she knew Nicholai was getting to them, so the quicker they leave, the better, and so with no further delay, Jill sighs an exhaustion one before heading inside the elevator and pressing the only button that will take them all the way to the top of the tower, and they were unaware, all oblivious that there was another person watching them other than Nicholai, a mysterious person walking onto the platform and watching the elevator travel further and further till it was out of view, but it was the appearance of the person itself that adds to the mystery effect considering the person donned a priest’s cassock robe with a hood that only exposed the person’s nose, lips and long black hair flowing out that rested on the front of the person’s shoulders, but it also exposed the right side of the jaw and neck where the mush flesh was disfigured from old third degree burns.

Judging from the person’s clothing, one would expect the person to be a male since only men were ordained by the church to be priest, but not this person as it was a woman’s voice, one that Carlos heard before, and the words she quietly spoke were void of any anger, but of a nostalgic sadness, almost like a lost soul trying to reach out to a loved one, trying to remember…

“Carlitos… you lived after all…”


End file.
